For the past five decades, the Antarctic Treaty has provided a firm foundation for ongoing international cooperation to successfully manage nearly ten percent of the Earth for “peaceful purposes only… on the basis of freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica as applied during the International Geophysical Year.” Growing from seven claimant and five non-claimant signatories, the Antarctic Treaty now engages 47 nations, representing nearly 90% of humankind. 

Reflecting this global context – as an endorsed project of the International Polar Year – the Antarctic Treaty Summit: Science-Policy Interactions in International Governance will provide an unique international, interdisciplinary and inclusive forum for scientists, legislators, administrators, lawyers, historians, educators, executives, students and other members of civil society to openly:

• Assess lessons learned from the Antarctic Treaty System during the past five decades that have legacy value for international governance in general;
• Reveal precedents for cooperative planetary-scale governance from one our civilization’s international spaces (i.e., outer space, deep sea and Antarctica); and
• Establish broad public awareness around the world about the visionary goals, strategies and achievements that have emerged from the Antarctic Treaty “in the interest of all mankind.”

As observed by the eminent polar explorer and scientist, Prof. Laurence Gould, during the Antarctic Treaty ratifications hearings in the United States Senate on 14 June 1960:

“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.”