In 1989 Australia and France refused to sign the Antarctic Minerals Convention on the grounds that minerals activity was incompatible with protection of the fragile Antarctic environment. Their actions changed the nature of the environmental protection regime which had been established under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 and which had become increasingly inadequate for minimising the impact of human activity in the Antarctic.

This book explores the development of that regime, the negotiation and demise of the Minerals Convention, and the negotiation of the comprehensive Protocol on Environmental Protection. In doing so, it explores the role not only of state actors and bureaucrats, but also of the scientific community and non-governmental organisations.

The lessons to be learned from the Antarctic, this study suggests, also have relevance for our understanding of international environmental relations more generally and for the search for environmental security.