Arctic News and Analysis
[Photo by Marc Lanteigne] by Marc Lanteigne For Germany, debates about the evolution of the country’s foreign and security policies are hardly new, and the ‘modern’ era of those deliberations can readily be traced to the end of the cold war in Europe, and the completion of German reunification in 1991. Since then, there have been numerous Wendepunkte (turning points) in Germany’s European… Continue reading Arctic Realpolitik: Germany’s Northern Strategies in a Time of Turning Points
US Coast Guard icebreaker Healy docked in Tromsø, Norway, October 2023 [Photo by Marc Lanteigne] By Marc Lanteigne As the Arctic Ocean faces ongoing warming and the breakup of the far north’s ice cap, access to the region, and to its resources, have become a greater concern for Arctic and non-Arctic governments. Ice erosion in… Continue reading Icebreaker Chess? A New Polar Shipbuilding Deal Amongst NATO Members
A bust of Roald Amundsen in the centre of the settlement at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard [Photo by Marc Lanteigne] by Marc Lanteigne Although there remains much conventional wisdom which still considers the Arctic to be only loosely situated within international law, and potentially subject to an inevitable competition over influence and resources, like any other body of… Continue reading Oasis No More? Svalbard and Contested Arctic Strategies
Air Greenland plane at Nuuk Airport [Photo by Marc Lanteigne] by Marc Lanteigne It was in 1954, after two years of test flights, when Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) successfully began a Copenhagen to Los Angeles route over the north polar region (with stops in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and Winnipeg), using DC6 aircraft. These trips opened up the possibility of shorter transits between… Continue reading ‘Can’t Keep My Mind From the Circling Sky’: The Take-off of Arctic Air Routes
Over the Circle 