Polar Geopolitics - Arctic and Antarctic analysis

On this episode, Prof. Caroline Kennedy-Pipe—an Arctic, Russia and Cold War expert at Loughborough University in England—analyses the emerging great power competition in the Arctic by providing a longer-term perspective on the geopolitical dynamics and developments in the circumpolar North over the past forty years. This period encompasses the close of the Cold War, the rise of international cooperation in the Arctic, and key shifts in the geopolitical position of Russia in the region and the world. Prof. Kennedy-Pipe also reflects on the role of ideology and how differing conceptions of sovereignty influence state actors in the Arctic.

Dr. Mike Sfraga, director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C., joins the podcast to discuss the various ways he sees the Biden administration altering American policies and geopolitical positioning in the polar regions. From global issues like climate change and great power competition, to regional and local issues such as renewed U.S. engagement with the Arctic Council, the key role of Greenland, and infrastructural development in his home state of Alaska, Dr. Sfraga analyses how American interests in the Arctic and Antarctic may be pursued over the next four years.

The rise of great power competition in the Arctic, the disruption of Antarctic governance due to COVID-19, and the impact of the coronavirus on vulnerable Arctic communities were some of the notable polar topics covered on this podcast during the course of the pandemic year of 2020. In this year-end review, Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway University, discusses what he sees as some of the most significant geopolitical aspects of the pandemic in the polar regions and beyond during this extraordinary year in world history.

Science is to a large extent the currency of governance and geopolitics in Antarctica, giving countries that conduct scientific research there a seat at the Antarctic Treaty System table. But should countries—often from the global South—that bear the brunt of the effects of climate-induced geophysical changes in Antarctica be given a greater voice in the ATS, even if they lack the resources to conduct costly research in the southern high latitudes? Similarly, should the influence of ATS states somehow be related to their level of carbon dioxide emissions, which drive the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet?  Peder Roberts, associate professor at the University of Stavanger, joins the podcast to reflect on how countries could be incentivized to reduce their impact on Antarctica while continuing to pursue ambitious polar science programs.

China’s increasingly ambitious polar activities have to date largely centered on exerting physical presence in the Arctic and Antarctic, according to Dr. Nengye Liu, an associate professor of international law at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. In a recent online presentation for China’s polar elite, Dr. Liu recommended that China should abandon such 19th century thinking, which causes anxiety among other stakeholders, and instead embrace a future in which China plays a leading role in combating global environmental change. In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Liu discusses his theoretical framework that could, he asserts, underpin a potential Chinese polar strategy 2.0 to replace current policies for the polar regions.

The admission of China, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea as observers to the Arctic Council in 2013 seemed a turning point in contemporary Arctic history, with the rapidly increasing engagement of Asian states appearing to signal the arrival of globalization as well as a new era of geopolitics in the High North. But how has it so far played out on the ground and on the ice? To analyze the evolving strategies and activities of the five Asian observer states over the past seven years, Polar Geopolitics is joined by Dr. Mia Bennett, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong and founder of the Cryopolitics blog. Dr. Bennett is an expert on Asian activity in the Arctic, and is a co-author of the newly-published edited volume “Observing the Arctic: Asia in the Arctic Council and Beyond” (Edward Elgar, 2020).

The opening of a US Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland represents the latest in a series of moves that signal a deepening geopolitical engagement in the Arctic by the United States in response to Russian and Chinese advances in the region. To explain the current U.S. policy and strategic outlook on the Arctic, including an in-depth discussion on Greenland, this episode of the podcast features an interview with one of the top American officials on Arctic issues: Michael J. Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nordic, Baltic, and Arctic Security Affairs at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State.

Although Antarctica is the only continent without a case of COVID-19, the pandemic has already caused a great deal of disruption to the ATS governance regime, as well as to scientific research and the tourism industry. Some even foresee a shift in Antarctic geopolitics as a result of the coronavirus crisis. To analyze the range of potential impacts of COVID-19 on Antarctica in the short, medium and long term, this episode of Polar Geopolitics features Associate Professor Alan Hemmings, an expert on Antarctic governance and geopolitics at the Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Russian and Norwegian interests intersect and occasionally collide in the Barents Sea and Svalbard, an Arctic geopolitical hotspot where lucrative fisheries, extensive energy resources and strategic nuclear forces exist in relatively close proximity. To analyze why simmering tensions between Norway and Russia in the Barents-Svalbard region have once again risen to the surface, Polar Geopolitics is joined by Dr. Andreas Østhagen, a senior research fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and an expert on Arctic geopolitics and the Barents Sea.

In part 2 of the interview with Polar Geopolitics, Prof. Ilan Kelman explains how the coronavirus crisis provides an opportunity for actors inside and outside the Arctic to influence policy agendas and reshape the geopolitics of the region. Also in this episode, polar historian Peder Roberts tells of the failed attempt to introduce penguins into northern Norway.