Premier Partners: Canada, the United States, and Arctic Security

Arctic Security: A Global Challenge

“…The Arctic region has become an arena for power and for competition (Huebert and Lackenbauer 2021; Lanteigne 2019) and Arctic nations must adapt to this new future. The Arctic holds the greatest concentration of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas, uranium, gold, diamonds, rare earth minerals—phosphate, bauxite, iron ore, copper, and nickel (Soltvedt, Rottem, and Hønneland 2018; Westerlundand and Öhman 1992)—and last but not least, fish (Pompeo 2019a).…”

“…The governance of the NEP is complex and is based on different pillars: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 4 the Arctic Council (AC), the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the domestic legislation of the Russian Federation that follows a pragmatic line and pursues its territorial claims in compliance with international law (Huebert and Lackenbauer 2021).…”

“…The five surrounding Arctic countries (Russia, US, Canada, Norway, and Denmark) are limited to an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles (370 km) adjacent to their coasts. However, the sovereignty of large parts of the Arctic region is contested and this could trigger conflicts (Gerhardt et al 2010; Huebert and Lackenbauer 2021).…”

“…China, which currently operates two icebreakers, launched in 2018 its first homemade nuclear icebreaker Xuelong 2 , or Snow Dragon 2 , which was put into service in the first half of 2019— Xuelong , bought from a Ukrainian company in 1993, was the only in service—and plans to build more icebreaking vessels to support its ambitions (State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China 2018; Xinhua 2018). So far, the Chinese icebreakers, which someone consider to be ‘combat ships’ (Huebert & Lackenbauer 2021), have been officially deployed on research missions. Nevertheless, the Pentagon warned that China could use its civilian research presence in the Arctic to strengthen its military presence—including deployment of submarines to the region as a deterrent against nuclear attack (Office of the Secretary of Defense 2019).…”

“…A report released by the German Council on Foreign Relations in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (Allers, Rácz, and Sæther 2021) concludes that due to climate change and great-power rivalry, the Arctic is no longer a remote and exceptional place, but part of a complex security environment where geo-political tension leads to militarization. There are warnings about a new Cold War (Martin 2021) with the Arctic Ocean to be transformed into ‘a new South China Sea’, militarized and with territorial claims (Huebert and Lackenbauer 2021; Huxley and Choong 2016; Krumm and Nicholson 2021). Notwithstanding the PRC seems to have no interest in changing the status for the Arctic Ocean rather than being bound by the current legal framework (Barnes et al 2021; Huebert and Lackenbauer 2021).…”