The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), created in 1959 to govern the southern continent, is often lauded as an illustration of science’s potential to inspire peaceful and rational International Relations. This article critically examines this optimistic view of science’s role in international politics by focusing on how science as a global hierarchical structure operated as a gatekeeper to an exclusive Antarctic club. I argue that in the early 20th century, the conduct of science in Antarctica was entwined with global and imperial hierarchies. As what Mattern and Zarakol call a broad hierarchy, science worked both as a civilized marker of international status as well as a social performance that legitimated actors’ imperial interests in Antarctica. The 1959 ATS relied on science as an existing broad hierarchy to enable competing states to achieve a functional bargain and ‘freeze’ sovereignty claims, whilst at the same time institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of science in maintaining international inequalities. In making this argument, I stress the role of formal international institutions in bridging our analysis of broad and functional hierarchies while also highlighting the importance of scientific hierarchies in constituting the current international order.

南极条约体系 (ATS) 于 1959 年创建以管理南部大陆，经常被誉为科学在激发和平和理性国际关系方面潜力的例证。本文通过关注作为全球等级结构的科学如何作为独家南极俱乐部的守门人运作，批判性地审视了这种对科学在国际政治中作用的乐观看法。我认为，在 20 世纪初期，南极洲的科学行为与全球和帝国等级制度交织在一起。正如马特恩和扎拉科尔所说的广泛的等级制度，科学既是国际地位的文明标志，也是使行为者在南极洲的帝国利益合法化的社会表演。1959 年的 ATS 依靠科学作为现有的广泛层次结构，使竞争国家能够实现功能性交易并“冻结”主权主张，同时将科学在维持国际不平等方面制度化并加强其合法性。在提出这个论点时，我强调正式的国际机构在弥合我们对广泛和功能层次结构的分析方面的作用，同时也强调了科学层次结构在构成当前国际秩序中的重要性。