Analyzing The Evolution Of Antarctic Treaty From The Perspective Of Constructivism

Due to its harsh and unique natural geographical environment,Antarctica has been ignored by the world for a long time and has no permanent population.However,it is also because of the unique natural ecosystem of Antarctica and its rich natural resources that issues such as territorial sovereignty,resource development,environmental protection and scientific investigation of Antarctica have surfaced with the exploration of Antarctica in the early 18 th century.The current Antarctic issue has also become a hot issue in global governance.The United States is an early participant in the Antarctic scientific research,an advocate and promoter of the Antarctic treaty,and a leader of the Antarctic treaty system.The evolution track of the Antarctic treaty is strongly influenced by the American Antarctic policy.Meanwhile,with the formation and development of the Antarctic treaty system,the Antarctic policies of the United States and other contracting states are also deeply embedded in the Antarctic treaty system,as a result of which the relationship between the system structure and the mutual construction of international actors becomes remarkable.This article puts national interests as the breakthrough point of the research,through the perspective of constructivism and based on the relationship between common culture and structure,through the interaction between structure and actors and their mutual construction,to observe the Antarctic treaty brewing,formation and evolution process.This paper try to analyse the characters of the evolution of the Antarctic treaty,to explore the dynamic mechanism which promotes the evolution of the Antarctic treaty and try to predict the evolution in the future.This paper attempts to explore the following questions: 1.What values led the United States to form the policy of not recognizing the sovereignty claims of the Antarctic region in the early20 th century;2.How the United States constructs its own values into the international norms widely recognized by the international community,and finally form the Antarctic treaty system dominated by itself;3.In the background of realism,which is full of national sovereignty,national interests and different international power structures,the United States has successfully constructed its own values into an international norm universally recognized by the international community,what is the implication for the construction of international norms in the future.Through analyzing the Antarctic treaty evolution,we can find that the cold warpattern reshapes the concept of United States on the national interest at the South Pole and the cognizance of national identity,the United States began to change its opinion on the South Pole interests from “occupying the Antarctic territory” to “managing and developing the South Pole”,so as to actively advocate and promote the Antarctic treaty signed.In the process of treaty negotiation and the formation of the treaty system,the interaction between international actors has played a constructive role in the formation and alternation of the three norms of “scientific investigation”,“resource development” and “environmental protection” in the system,which has promoted the signing of the Antarctic treaty and the formation of the Antarctic treaty system.In the operation and development of treaty system,during the architecture specification construction for the interests of the actors and the total of the construction of culture of architecture in the United States Antarctic national interest identified by the “management to develop the South Pole” move to “protect the Antarctic environment”,also laid a good foundation for the future development of the Antarctic treaty system.During the evolution of the Antarctic treaty,the United States also established its leading position in the Antarctic treaty system and acquired resources and powers in the system.By analyzing the evolution characteristics of the Antarctic treaty and the dynamic mechanism behind it,we can predict the future of the Antarctic treaty system.At present,global environmental problems are prominent,and countries all over the world pay increasing attention to environmental issues.The “environmental protection” norms in the Antarctic treaty system are highly recognized worldwide and still have strong vitality.Therefore,in the foreseeable future,in the process of constant internalization of Kantian culture,the Antarctic treaty system will continue to exist and develop,and the Kantian culture as the international norm of common culture will provide a bright future for the development of international politics.