The sprawling land mass at our globe's southernmost extreme is the remotest, coldest, highest, driest, windiest, least inhabited, and most barren of all the world's continents. It is also the most pristine, and its special geographical and environmental character makes Antarctica important for scientific research and also influences policies intended to regulate and husband its use. This study of America's role in developing an international regime for governance and protection of the Antarctic challenges the traditional assumption that pursuit of a state's national interest is often irreconcilable with the pursuit of global interests. Instead, Christopher C. Joyner and Ethel R. Theis suggest, by investing financial and physical resources in Antarctic research that surpass all other nations, the US has taken a leading role in influencing the "interlocking relationship not only between political and security interests, but also among legal, scientific, environmental, and economic interests."