The EDDA Research Center at the University of Iceland and LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics hosted – on 16 October 2026 – an international conference on the changing world order and its implications for the Arctic and Antarctica. The conference, entitled World Order and Polar Geopolitics, which was organized in coordination with Stellenbosch University in South Africa, brought together scholars to explore challenges to the liberal international order, renewed great-power rivalry, and the erosion of polar exceptionalism. Discussions addressed imperial legacies, competing visions of international order, alliance politics, maritime security, and state interests in the polar regions. By examining the Arctic and Antarctica together, the conference focused on how geopolitical pressures are reshaping regions with distinct political, legal, and institutional arrangements, and what these changes mean for the future of the polar regions.