Icebreakers for a Hot Party

Some of them have gleams in their eyes, picturing vast stores of untapped natural resources waiting for whatever nasty extraction methods mankind can apply. Others see a navigation route that can cut days, even weeks, for ship traffic between Europe and Asia while totally circumventing the expensive and lethargic Panama Canal. Some see an open benefit to be managed on behalf of the entire planet. Some have planted underwater flags claiming deep underwater ridges as extensions of their national sovereignty. Others are building mega-capacity and militarily capable vessels to command and dominate this vast region. What is different is that it wasn’t even possible until just a few years ago, and it will only become more accessible as time passes. Global warming has accomplished what mankind could not. It’s the once-elusive Northwest Passage, a quest that dominated early explorers centuries ago with obvious frustration.

The party goers are the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark (which manages Greenland), and the party is the Arctic Council which was designed to plot the future of this rapidly-changing region. One player, Russia, seems a tad aggressive and unlikely to win friends and influence people. “Russian explorers have planted their country’s flag on the seabed [14,000ft] below the North Pole to further Moscow’s claims to the Arctic…The rust-proof titanium metal flag was brought by explorers travelling in two mini-submarines, in what is believed to be the first expedition of its kind.” BBC.co.uk, August 2, 2007.

As the U.S. operates an aging fleet of old-world icebreakers (some Russian-built diesels), and while Canada is slowly upgrading its fleet, no one is planning to compete with Russian capacity in the making. For example, Moscow is building a “$1.1 billion nuclear-powered icebreaker [561 feet] long and [112.2 feet] wide. It's designed to navigate both shallow rivers and the freezing depths of the Northern Sea. Powered by two ‘RITM-200’ compact pressurized water reactors generating 60Mwe [medium powered nuclear breeder reactor], the world’s largest ‘universal’ nuclear icebreaker is designed to blast through ice more than [13 feet] thick and tow tankers of up to 70,000 tons displacement through Arctic ice fields.” Slashdot.org, September 12^th.

The Arctic Council has politely skirted military issues in the Arctic. Focusing instead on sustainable development and environmental sensitivity as “common Arctic issues,” there has been an unjustified assumption that this region will remain “demilitarized.” Funny how many conflicts and global disasters have been predicted on such benign assumptions.

The issues that have yet to be addressed include: “How, for instance, will each nation position its military and police its territory? How will the Arctic states deal with China and other nations that have no formal jurisdictional claims but have strong interests in exploiting Arctic resources? How will Arctic and non-Arctic states work together to manage those resources beyond national jurisdictions, on the high seas and in the deep sea? Without ratifying the Convention on the Law of the Sea, a 1982 treaty governing use of the world’s oceans, how can the United States cooperate with other nations to resolve territorial disputes in the ocean? … NATO’s top military commander, Adm. James G. Stavridis of the United States Navy, warned in 2010 of an ‘icy slope toward a zone of competition, or worse, a zone of conflict’ if the world’s leaders failed to ensure Arctic peace.” New York Times, March 12^th.

The Obama administration has been surprisingly silent on these vital issues. Are we so loath to deal with issues that have military overtones that we cannot even address major problems in our own backyard? Are we so focused on our border to the south that the mega resource and free passage battle in the north – one that could supply American needs for decades or longer to come – is simply off our radar?

I’m Peter Dekom, and the world is a complex and unforgiving place if you take your eyes off the ball and simply wait for a crisis to react to.