Geopolitics of Antarctica with Dr. Klaus Dodds

Hopkins Podcast on Foreign Affairs

Antarctica, with its freezing temperatures, wind blown surfaces, and shockingly low amount of precipitation is the earth’s most inhospitable continent — surrounded on all sides by the southern ocean, it took until 1911 for explorers to reach the southern pole. Yet, the continent is not beyond the reach of politics.

In this special episode of our two part series on great power competition in the poles, we discuss the geopolitics of Antarctica. What is the Antarctic treaty? What are the treaties limitations? How has climate change and COVID-19 affected the region, and how are great powers pushing the envelope of what should and shouldn’t be done in the region? To help us answer these questions, today on the Podcast we are joined by Professor Klaus Dodds.

Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the author and editor of many books including The Scramble for the Poles (2016, Polity) and Pink Ice: Britain and the South Atlantic Empire (2002, I B Tauris). He is an Honorary Fellow of British Antarctic Survey and Editor in Chief of Territory, Politics and Governance. He has served as a specialist adviser to the UK Parliament on polar matters, worked with the Parliamentary Office on Science and Technology (POST) on polar science diplomacy, and visited the Antarctic on four separate occasions. In December 2019, he spoke at the inaugural Antarctic Parliamentarians Assembly in London.

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Geopolitics of Antarctica with Dr. Klaus Dodds