The Antarctic Treaty Summit will be convened at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC from November 30 to December 3, 2009, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signature-day for the Antarctic Treaty in the city where it was adopted in “in the interest of all mankind.” The Antarctic Treaty Summit is a fully endorsed project of the International Polar Year, funded internationally from public and private sources.

For the past five decades, the 1959 Antarctic Treaty has provided a firm foundation for international cooperation to successfully manage nearly 10% of the Earth for “peaceful purposes only… on the basis of freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica as applied during the International Geophysical Year.” The Antarctic Treaty now engages 46 nations, embracing a wide range of cultures as well as legal and political systems. Representing the majority of humankind, the Antarctic Treaty System has lessons for us all.

The Antarctic Treaty Summit will provide – for the first time – an open international forum for scientists, legislators, lawyers, administrators, educators, students, corporate executives, historians and other members of civil society to explore science-policy achievements from the first fifty years of the Antarctic Treaty. In addition, this inclusive forum will complement government celebrations of the Antarctic Treaty anniversary. Specific objectives of the Antarctic Treaty Summit project are to assess: (a) the nature and consequences of interactions between science and policy to meet the challenges facing the Antarctic Treaty System; (b) precedents from the Antarctic Treaty System that can be applied to the governance of international regions and resources; and (c) determinants of resilience in international governance systems.

International, interdisciplinary dimensions of the Antarctic Treaty Summit will reveal lessons and stories that have legacy value for governing ‘international spaces’ (high seas and deep sea as well as outer space and Antarctica) into the distant future. As observed by the polar explorer and former President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Laurence Gould:

“The Antarctic Treaty is indispensable to the world of science which knows no national or other political boundaries, but it is much more than that… it is a document unique in history which may take its place alongside the Magna Carta and other great symbols of man's quest for enlightenment and order.”

Download PDF: Antarctic Treaty Summit Flyer
Download PDF: Antarctic Treaty Summit Background Paper
Download PDF: Antarctic Treaty Summit Public Agenda