Pre Emptive Peace and Planetary Commons: Antarctica as a Laboratory for Governance before Crisis

Antarctica is Earth’s only legally constituted planetary commons — and a planetary systems stabiliser whose cryosphere shapes sea-level trajectories, ocean circulation, food security, and the insurability of coastal cities worldwide. Yet the Treaty System that governs it faces mounting strain as strategic competition intensifies ahead of the 2048 Madrid Protocol review. This roundtable brings together practitioners from Antarctic governance, institutional innovation, and long-term stewardship to explore “pre-emptive peace” — governance architectures designed to preserve civilisational optionality by acting before crisis rather than after. Drawing on the Civilisation Options Fund framework and lived experience of Antarctic systems, participants will examine: what political, regenerative, and financial architectures can hold multi-agent coordination at planetary scale? How might Antarctica serve as a proving ground for governing planetary commons? And what can environmental peacebuilding contribute to — and learn from — this emerging field? Participants: Chair: Linda Sheehan, Environment Now (United States) Stephen Heintz, Rockefeller Brothers Fund (United States) Indy Johar, Dark Matter Labs (United Kingdom) Andrew Kelly, Impact Trust / Dark Matter Labs (Australia)