Cold fleet: the Southern Ocean, Antarctica and the ADF

This paper examines Australia's involvement and responsibilities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, in the context that both have increasingly become areas of interest to Australia as a result of a number of environmental and socio-political drivers, notably climate change, resource exploitation and growing tensions over sovereignty claims.

The paper addresses several approaches for dealing with these issues, particularly identifying areas where the ADF has the capability and potential assets to contribute significantly to Australia's national interests. It concludes that in the not-too-distant future, it may prudent for the ADF to head south, where its development of 'cold fleet' (and perhaps 'cold feet') capabilities could contribute significantly to Australia's longer-term security.

This paper was also featured in the Indo-Pacific Strategic Digest Summer 2016.

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