Subglacial nationalisms

Abstract

The chapter examines the geopolitical factors running alongside declaratory scientific and environmental/international public-good rationales for subglacial research in Antarctica. This is a classic Antarctic dual-purpose phenomenon. It focusses on a subset of this subglacial research – ice drilling for the purposes of recovering long time-series ice cores to elucidate past climate patterns, against which anthropogenic climate change may be assessed – and through the prism of the current activities of a single state (Australia). The principal thread of events that the chapter traces, connects perceived Australian national interests, a recent national Antarctic strategic plan emphasising inter alia ‘leadership’, characterisation of the goal as acquisition of a ‘million-year-ice-core’, anxiety about Chinese activities, and substantial financial and political investment in a new ice core drilling project in East Antarctica (within the area it claims). Critical to the analysis is a deconstruction of the framing of the scientific and operational parameters of the project. The chapter argues that this framing is consistent with Australia’s territorial claim to some 42% of the Continent, and its continuing stance as perhaps the Antarctic’s most assertive claimant. The nature of the engagement is, the chapter asserts, a further demonstration of contemporary Antarctic nationalism.