At a conceptual level, our discussion is informed by a desire to better understand how ‘territory’ and ‘region’ are put to work discursively and acted out and upon geopolitically. We address polar regionalism in general which then lead into separate sections on the Arctic and Antarctic respectively. For the sake of brevity, the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty System respectively will be the main areas of reflection. By way of conclusion, we expect polar regionalisms to become ever more contentious as multiple stakeholders engage with overlapping and cross-cutting policy themes, geophysical change, and the contested legacies of exploration, exploitation, colonialism and domination.