Change and continuity in Antarctic environmental protection: Politics and policy.
Date
1995
Authors
Perera, Mahinda Harischandra.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Dalhousie University
Abstract
Description
Antarctica has come to symbolize the new dimension in international relations--the relationship between humankind and the natural environment. The growing environmental awareness among publics and governments has focussed on the need to give priority to the environmental impacts of economic development policies if past mistakes are to be corrected and a better path to the future is to be provided. This awareness has spread to the far corners of the Earth including the area south of 60$\sp\circ$ South Latitude--Antarctica. The study attempts to empirically evaluate the implementation of the policies of the environmental regime created under the Antarctic Treaty System since 1961. The main focus is on the factors that enhance or impair the effectiveness of such regimes. The central thesis is that the Antarctic Treaty System, which was created essentially as a conflict prevention mechanism and which has been characterized by its secrecy for most of its existence, has been transformed into one of the more effective environmental protection regimes. This has been due largely to the pressure exerted by a transnational coalition of environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Such pressure has resulted in the elevation by governments of environmental protection from "low politics" to "high politics" on the Antarctic diplomatic agenda.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1995.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1995.
Keywords
Political Science, International Law and Relations., Environmental Sciences.