Over the Circle

The sixth annual Arctic Circle conference will commence next week in Reykjavík, at a time when the region is yet again back in the news as a result of growing concerns about the effects on climate change and melting ice. This month has already seen a bombshell report from the United Nations which detailed the drastic changes… Continue reading Arctic Circle 2018: Northern Enlightening →

A look at Arctic news from around the region. 'When the Ice Melts, What Will Happen to Arctic Tourism?' [Cryopolitics] 'High North- Low Tension? Norway, Russia and Securitisation in the Arctic,' [E-International Relations Students] 'IPCC Says Limiting Global Warming to 1.5 °C Will Require Drastic Action,' [Nature] 'The Icelandic Economic Crisis of October 2008 Remembered,'… Continue reading Elsewhere… →

Although evidence of the cumulative effects of climate change, including in the Arctic, has been appearing for decades now, a new study [pdf] by international specialists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under the aegis of the United Nations World Meteorological Association (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released in Incheon, South Korea, this week… Continue reading A Countdown Appears? A New UN Report Warns of Approaching Climate Change Threats →

A new article (in Finnish) by Marc Lanteigne, editor of the OtC blog, has been published in the online journal Ulkopolitiikka (Foreign Policy) on the subject of China's expanded Arctic diplomacy. Since China became a formal observer in the Arctic Council in 2013, its interests in the far north are being seen in numerous parts… Continue reading New Article: ‘Kiina kurottaa pohjoiseen’ (‘China Reaches the North’) →

This week, the ongoing story about the planned expansion of three airports in Greenland, including the facilities in the capital of Nuuk, saw another twist after the United States Department of Defence (DoD) released a single page statement of intent confirming American interest in potential investment in Greenlandic infrastructure with an eye to improving US and Greenlandic… Continue reading Greenland’s Airport Saga: Enter the US? →