Potential For Future Conflicts
John Keegan and Andrew Wheatcroft, in their 1986 book 'Zones of Conflict: An Atlas of Future Wars', make the point that strategic interests in Antarctica derive from two causes: economic and strategic. Antarctica has great potential economic value, in terms of mineral and oil resources. Strategically, there was continuing concern about keeping the Cape Horn route available for free passage during the Cold War, as, among other things, U.S. aircraft carriers cannot pass through the Panama Canal. The Falkland Islands, Keegan and Wheatcroft go on to say, dominate the Drake Passage, the 'stretch of stormy water separating South America from the Antarctic'. This was a less publicised factor during the Falklands War.
However, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and increasing competition for fossil fuel resources, the 'economic' rather than the 'strategic' rationale is probably more important in the early twenty-first century.
Read more about this topic: Military Activity In The Antarctic
Famous quotes containing the words potential, future and/or conflicts:
“The real community of man ... is the community of those who seek the truth, of the potential knowers.”
—Allan Bloom (1930–1992)
“If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another—and always into a better set—things might be easier, but the trouble is that there is no one to prepare the new rooms. The future is worse than the ocean—there is nothing there. It will be what men and circumstances make it.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“The more parents intervene, the more siblings fight. And the bigger role parents assume in settling arguments, the less chance siblings have to learn how to resolve conflicts for themselves.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)