Antarctica (Paperback)

Paperback. Who will control the last continent?For more than sixty years, Antarctica has been the world's great exception: a continent without a government, without armies and without mines, set aside by treaty for peace and science. That exception is under pressure as never before.China has built five stations in forty years and is planning a sixth in the only sector no country has claimed. Russian survey ships have mapped the hydrocarbon potential of the seabed. The krill fishery has hit its limit two years in a row, sea ice has fallen to record lows, the emperor penguin is now listed as endangered, and the annual Treaty meetings end, again and again, without consensus. Meanwhile the United States, which built the Antarctic order, has lost its last dedicated Antarctic research ship.This fully revised 2026 edition, current to September 2026, explains: the seven frozen territorial claims and the newcomers crowding the mapChina's polar rise, Russia's return and America's retreatwhat lies beneath the ice: coal, iron, oil, gas, fresh water and krillthe truth about the "2048 mining deadline" and the "secret Nazi base"satellites, runways and the dual-use geography of powerfour scenarios for the decades ahead, and a Net Assessment with explicit probabilities and warning indicatorsIllustrated with more than twenty historical and modern photographs, original maps and charts, a chronology, a glossary, a full bibliography and an index, this book is for anyone who wants to understand why the coldest place on Earth is becoming one of the hottest questions in world politics.A fully revised and expanded edition of the author's earlier book, Antarctica: A New Arena for Great Power Rivalry (2023). This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…