Antarctic Policymaking & Science

Thesis by Peter Abbink

Peter Abbink analyzed the policies behind Dutch involvement in Antarctica. Dutch researchers are at present structurally involved in various fields of scientific research in Antarctica. Dozens took part recently in the projects of the Fourth International Polar Year of 2007-2009. Because of this research the Dutch government, as a Consultative Party (CP) to the Antarctic Treaty, has a say in both Antarctica's management and future. Yet Dutch Antarctic involvement is only of recent date. The Netherlands did not take part, for example, in the Antarctic Programme of the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958 and became a CP only in 1990.
Abbink made an analysis of the policies behind Dutch involvement/non-involvement and placed it in a wider context through comparing the Antarctic policies of Belgium and Germany in the same period. All three countries had one or more longer periods of both involvement and non-involvement in Antarctic research in the period 1957-1990.Each of these countries began to take part in Antarctic research at its own speed, at different moments in time, and with varying degrees of intensity and the dates of inclusion in the Antarctic Treaty also varied. The central question is: Why does a country, a government, decide to invest (or not) in Antarctic research and to take part (or not) in the Antarctic Treaty? The Antarctic policies of these three countries - their similarities and differences - are explained in this study through a comparative analysis of the relation between politics and science, political cultures and through the use of an existing agenda setting theory.

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