OADD 2285 - Governing the Poles. The Arctic and the Antarctic in the Era of Climate Change.

The Arctic and the Antarctic have long been considered closed to any major form of human activity, despite the presence of indigenous people in the Arctic. Buried under multi-year ice, they are seen as the most remote, isolated, and inhospitable parts of our planet. Climate change has come to alter this picture. The Arctic Ocean has been melting faster than most scientists have predicted, with over 40% of its hard multi-year ice vanishing over the past two to three decades. With this has come the opening up of trade routes, such as the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route. The Antarctic Peninsula has also been one the fastest warming parts of our planet, and according to prominent climatologists is beginning to enjoy a climate comparable to Greenland.

With climate change will come various challenges and opportunities. Prime amongst them is the rise in sea level that is likely to accompany the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. This rise threatens to render several parts of the globe completely uninhabitable, in particular small island states such as the Maldives that will be fully submerged over the course of the century. On the other hand, enormous economic opportunities are likely to arise from the increased navigability of the Arctic and Southern Oceans, such as increased access to mineral and fishery resources, and the potential emergence of a large habitable landmass in Antarctica.

This course will examine existing governance structures in the Arctic and the Antarctic to determine whether and how they will resist the significant political, economic and other transformations that will be ushered-in by climate change. With Russia's increased militarization of the Arctic, and the expansion of Asia's presence in the Antarctic, the course will ask how the world can best prepare itself for a new era in polar relations.

The course will be taught in 6 Sessions, with each session consisting of 3 hours on Friday and another 3 hours on Saturday (back-to-back).

Numerous guest speakers and representatives of indigenous people will be invited to address students during the course.

Students will be required to be active participants in all lectures, to participate in a mock simulation, and to write a 7 page term paper.

The course grading will be distributed as follows: 30% on class participation, 30% on participation in the mock simulations, and 40% on the term paper.