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Arctic Yearbook 2015
be seen in Article IV with the declaration “No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim, to
territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force” (ATS 1959).
In effect, what Article IV succeeded in doing was freezing Antarctic territorial boundaries so as to
avoid any tectonic geopolitical shifts. Even if such a provision were to be introduced in the
Circumpolar North, it would be unreasonable to draw the conclusion that a military draw-down would
ensue as the Arctic falls within the territorial confines of five littoral states.
So how does the Antarctic Treaty specifically relate to the Arctic? While the ATS stands as the letter
of the law in the Circumpolar South, component ́