"Who can resist this guy?" Jacques Cousteau, Celebrity Diplomacy, and the Environmental Protection of the Antarctic

Abstract

Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau was perhaps one of the most recognisable international celebrity environmentalists of his time. Cousteau is not remembered, however, for his pivotal role in the defeat of the 1988 Antarctic Minerals Convention, which, if ratified, would have paved the way for mining to begin in Antarctica. Using the full weight of his celebrity, his personal charisma and his ability to marshal international public opinion, Cousteau was central to the successful campaign for a World Park Antarctica. The new international agreement that Cousteau ultimately helped to bring about is one of the most significant pieces of international environmental legislation in existence today, and Cousteau's crowning environmental achievement. Cousteau's successful Antarctic campaign demonstrates the indelible impact celebrities can have on international environmental negotiations, and political developments more broadly.