Cold Front: Conflict Ahead in Arctic Waters

Due to recent acceleration in ice-cap melting, both of the Arctic Ocean's North-East and North-West passages briefly opened in August of 2008, bringing attention to the seldom discussed ramifications of climate change on international relations. With Greenland, Norway, Russia, Canada, and the U.S. all laying claim to waters surrounding the North Pole, Fairhall (The Guardian's Defense Correspondent during the Cold War) warns of the disputes regarding commercial rights and traffic through the Arctic Ocean. Examples of potential conflict abound, posing challenges to agreements like The Spitzbergen Treaty of 1920 and the UN convocation on the Law of the Sea, both of which attempted to establish who had access to undersea natural resources. Even foreign ships' rights of innocent passage have come under scrutiny, as the boundaries of territorial waters become more difficult to delineate. Fairhall's history section outlines periodic attempts to conquer these two passages and clarifies how important and difficult it will be to govern the Arctic region. Climate change is destructive enough in itself, but the political implications the author points out induce deep breaths in anticipation of a truly cold war. Agent: Anne Nicholson, I.B. Tauris (Dec.)