When an undersea telecommunications cable connecting this remote Arctic archipelago to mainland Norway and the rest of Europe was damaged, Norwegian authorities called the only fishing boat to dock within miles. A Russian fishing boat. Police in the northern city of Tromsø questioned the crew and launched an investigation into the incident, which is considered a major threat to the security of Norway and other countries, including the United States. Without backup cables, the damage would cut off the internet at the world’s largest satellite relay station, docking stations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, and government agencies. other in the world. space-time clock.
The findings of the investigation are inconclusive, though disturbing. Something “artificial” damaged the cables, but Norwegian police could not prove the Russian fishing boat was responsible, authorities told me. The police allowed the crew of the fishing boat to return to their ship and set sail again. In 1996, eight Arctic territories formed the Arctic Council, where they agreed on standards for environmental protection and pooled technology and money for the joint exploitation of natural resources in the area.
But today, this Arctic wasteland is rapidly becoming the center of a new conflict. The vast sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean is melting rapidly due to climate change, losing 13% per decade – a rate experts say could make the Arctic ice-free in the summer as early as the year 2035.
Now, the thaw has created new shipping routes, opening up existing seasonal routes for more than a year and providing more opportunities for natural resource extraction. Countries are currently vying for military and commercial control of this newly-accessed territory – a rivalry that has only intensified since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine.
At the same time, America is catching up with an environment in which it has little experience and capacity. The government and military appear to be waking up to the threats of climate change and Russian dominance in the Arctic – recently launched a national strategy for the Arctic region.
America’s European allies have also redesigned homeland security, increasing defense and security budgets around critical energy infrastructure in the Arctic as they work to build defenses and less dependent on US aid.
Even as the U.S. says it has developed stronger Arctic policies, five prominent Arctic watchers say that ‘the U.S. government and military are taking too narrow a view, seeing the Arctic as primarily Alaska and an area for natural resource extraction, but not as a key geopolitical and national security battleground beyond U.S. border”. They say the United States is both short of resources in the Arctic and unprepared to deal with a growing climate threat, which will require new types of technology, training, and infrastructure, and has little experience.
There have been tense times in the Arctic over the past few decades, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February took the rivalry to the next level. Immediately after the invasion, seven other members of the Arctic Council announced that they would boycott upcoming negotiations in Russia. Norway considered NATO’s northern listening station, has restricted access to its ports to Russian fishing boats, but has always allowed Russia to fish in the Barents Sea.
In mid-November, US Special Forces demonstrated the use of a parachute-deployed guided weapon system on Norwegian territory. In Norway’s Far North, a term used to describe Norway’s Arctic territories, no fewer than seven Russian nationals have been arrested in recent months for flying drones, banned by a similar ban on Russian airlines in European airspace.
There have been tense times in the Arctic over the past few decades, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February took the rivalry to the next level. Immediately after the invasion, seven other members of the Arctic Council announced that they would boycott upcoming negotiations in Russia. Norway considered NATO’s northern listening station, has restricted access to its ports to Russian fishing boats, but has always allowed Russia to fish in the Barents Sea.