Geopolitical Changes and Futures of CCAMLR

The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR or CAMLR Convention) was negotiated in the late 1970s in the shadow of the Soviet Union’s expanding interest in Antarctic krill fisheries. The development of a management regime for the krill fishery in the remote Southern Ocean vividly reflects geopolitical changes of the world at that time. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is similarly being affected by geopolitical forces from the wider international system today. This chapter therefore first reviews the historical background for the establishment of the CCAMLR. It then provides an overview of geopolitics facing the CCAMLR. The chapter ends with an attempt to draw three possible pathways for CCAMLR’s future.