It's time to draw borders on the Arctic Ocean

Summary

As the Arctic ice melts due to climate change, an emerging geopolitical competition is unfolding over the vast, resource-rich ocean and its strategic advantages. Russia is notably aggressive, extending its influence through military presence, economic activities, and strategic settlements like Barentsburg, on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard. Despite adhering to international border protocols, Russia's military build-up and provocative actions hint at its strong ambitions to control the Arctic, challenging neighboring nations and global observers to manage rising tensions in the region.

Highlights

• Russia has revitalized its Arctic presence, aiming for influence as the ice melts. ❄️
• The race for natural resources in the Arctic is intensifying among nations. ⛏️
• UN protocols and scientific claims define maritime borders, but tensions remain. 🌐
• Russia utilizes soft power in Barentsburg as a strategic foothold. 🔍
• Military exercises showcase Russia's might and provoke geopolitical debate. 🛡️

Key Takeaways

• Russia is aggressively asserting its claims in the Arctic, fueling geopolitical tensions. 🏔️
• The melting Arctic ice presents both economic opportunities and environmental challenges. 🌊
• International rules are crucial to maintaining peace and cooperation in the Arctic. ⚖️
• Soft power plays, like the Russian presence in Barentsburg, enhance geopolitical influence. 🌍
• Russia’s military activity hints at its commitment to control Arctic strategies. 🚢

Overview

The Arctic is transforming into a focal point of international interest as the ice recedes, uncovering economic opportunities and strategic advantages. Russia is leading the charge to stake its claims in the region, opting for both hard and soft power strategies to solidify its presence and influence, challenging other Arctic nations.

Moscow's military investments and renovated outposts, particularly in Barentsburg, serve as a statement of Russia's Arctic ambitions. Despite playing by international rules regarding territorial claims, Russia's assertive military exercises highlight its complex dual approach: seeking both stability for investment and readiness to assert dominance if needed.

The melting Arctic ice is not just an environmental issue but a geopolitical chessboard, where traditional treaties and norms are challenged by new economic and strategic realities. Nations must navigate these changing dynamics carefully to ensure peace and mutual benefit as new borders and power projections emerge.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Arctic Ownership The chapter explores the question of Arctic ownership amidst shrinking ice coverage. It highlights the strategic and economic significance of the region, with a particular focus on Russia's increased interest and investment in the Arctic, likening it to a modern 'Wild West' scenario.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Russian Influence in the Arctic The chapter discusses the rapid melting of ice in the Arctic region and highlights Russia's efforts to project its power in the area. It emphasizes the need for diplomatic measures to prevent conflict in the High North. The chapter also briefly mentions the usage of a specially fortified camera designed to withstand explosions, possibly used in a mining context.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Barentsburg: A Strategic Outpost Barentsburg, located on the island of Svalbard near the North Pole, is a town featuring a coal mine owned by the Russian government. Despite the presence of Russian symbols like flags and a bust of Vladimir Lenin, Barentsburg is not part of Russia. The town is maintained for strategic purposes rather than economic profit, as it has been losing money for decades.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Melting Ice and Emerging Opportunities This chapter discusses Russia's interest in the Arctic region due to its strategic influence, particularly as the Arctic Ocean's ice continues to melt because of climate change. It compares the Arctic Ocean's ice coverage in September 1984 with a much-reduced coverage thirty-two years later, highlighting the significant environmental changes and the geopolitical and economic opportunities these changes present.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Continental Shelf Claims In September 2016, while most viewed the situation as a looming disaster, the Arctic nations saw a new opportunity with the emerging access to a previously inaccessible ocean. Geologists and the United States Geological Survey estimate that the Arctic region could contain 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its oil, making it a region of high interest for resource exploration and extraction.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Russia's Arctic Military Activities The chapter discusses Russia's military activities in the Arctic. It mentions that resources in the Arctic are becoming more accessible each year, making the region of global interest. New shipping routes are opening due to less ice coverage, facilitating shorter trips between Asian and Western markets. The chapter also touches upon the complex issue of Arctic borders, which remain a topic for discussion and negotiation.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Svalbard: A Unique Territory The chapter 'Svalbard: A Unique Territory' discusses maritime borders, focusing on how each country gets default maritime borders extending 200 nautical miles off their coast. It outlines the concept of exclusive economic zones and the role of continental shelves, which are parts of a country's landmass covered by ocean, in determining ownership of oceanic waters beyond these zones.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Russia's Soft Power Strategy in Barentsburg This chapter explores Russia's soft power strategy in Barentsburg, focusing on the melting ice's impact on territorial claims and scientific exploration. As the ice melts, nations deploy submarines to collect data on the continental shelf, formulating scientific cases to present to the UN committee overseeing such matters. The validity of these claims determines the new national borders, which extend from coastlines into the ocean. Understanding the boundaries of the continental shelf has significant implications, potentially adding millions of square kilometers to a nation's territory.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Russia's Dual Policy Approach This chapter discusses Russia's approach to its territorial claims in the Arctic region, focusing on its overlap with other nations' claims. Among the countries mentioned are Norway, Iceland, and Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Norway and Iceland's claims have been approved by the United Nations, while others are still pending, including Canada's, which is gathering data for its submission. The chapter highlights the geopolitical implications of these overlapping claims in the Arctic, particularly in regard to the valuable resources beneath the seabed.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Personal Reflections and Sponsor Message This chapter delves into the details of how the UN committee responsible for evaluating territorial claims to the North Pole operates. Unlike diplomatic committees, this one is solely comprised of scientists whose task is to confirm or disprove the scientific validity of each claim. Countries, thereafter, engage in negotiations to determine the allocation of territories. Specifically, Russia's aggressive pursuit of extending its claim to the North Pole is highlighted, including its symbolic act of planting a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in 2007.

It's time to draw borders on the Arctic Ocean Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I'm on an island near the North Pole and I'm here to find out who owns the Arctic. As the ice melts more and more in this region, you can see just how dramatic the ice has been shrinking. One of these countries has shown that they're willing to fight for it. Russia's making a new push into the Arctic. This is the Wild West. Investment opportunities opening up in sort of an unusual area: the Russian Arctic. The Arctic region has strategic and economic importance.
• 00:30 - 01:00 The pace of melting is only getting faster. Russia projecting its power. Use diplomacy to avoid further conflict in the High North. So, I'm not allowed to take my camera down into the mine. So I've been given this explosion-proof super fortified camera. In case it explodes, it won't cause a death fire for
• 01:00 - 01:30 the entire community. This coal mine is owned by the Russian government, it's in a town with Russian flags, and the bust of a Russian Communist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin. But, this isn't Russia. It's Barentsburg, on the island of Svalbard near the North Pole. It's a place that exists for strategic reasons, not for making money. In fact it loses money. Has for decades.
• 01:30 - 02:00 Russia funds this place because for them, it means influence in this region. A frozen ocean, that is melting more and more every year due to the changing climate. This is what the Arctic Ocean looked like in September 1984. Fast-forward thirty two years and this is what it looks like:
• 02:00 - 02:30 September 2016. Most of the world sees this as a looming disaster, but for the Arctic nations this change means an opportunity: Access to a brand new ocean. Here's what geologists think oil and gas resources might look like in the Arctic. The US Geological Survey estimates that the region holds 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its oil.
• 02:30 - 03:00 These resources are still remote and costly to access but they're more accessible every year and suddenly this desolate region is very interesting to the world. New shipping routes are also opening up and this ocean, that was once frozen, is now navigable for longer periods every summer, cutting weeks off the trips between Asian and Western markets. The topic of borders in the Arctic region is a little bit complex and it's an issue that's still open for discussion and negotiation. Currently the border lines in the Arctic Ocean
• 03:00 - 03:30 look like this. Every country gets their default maritime borders that are 200 nautical miles off their coast. The rest of the water that doesn't fall within these exclusive economic zones, is up for grabs to anyone who can prove that it belongs to them. And that has a lot to do with a continental shelf. A continental shelf is a part of a country's landmass. It's just covered with ocean.
• 03:30 - 04:00 The continental shelf continues until it drops off into the deeper parts of the ocean. Since the ice has been melting, countries have been sending out submarines to gather data on the continental shelf. They put together a scientific case and submit it to a UN committee. This committee reviews it and decides whether or not the country's claim is scientifically valid. Extending from our coastlines, lying beneath the sea, is an extension of our country called the continental shelf. It determines the new borders of our country. Knowing where the edge of the continental shelf lies, adds millions of
• 04:00 - 04:30 square kilometers to our country and makes the resources on the seafloor and beneath the seabed, Canada's. So far Norway and Iceland are the only two nations whose continental shelf claims have been submitted and approved by the UN, but others have submitted claims that are waiting for approval. Look at Russia's claims versus that of Greenland, the large Arctic island that actually belongs to Denmark. The claims overlap significantly. Canada is in the process of gathering data and is expected to submit a claim that will also have some overlap here.
• 04:30 - 05:00 The UN committee that evaluates these claims is made up of scientists, not diplomats. Their sole job is to say whether or not the claim is scientifically valid. It's then up to the countries to negotiate how to work out who gets what. Russia has shown its interest in having a claim that extends all the way to the North Pole. In 2007 Russia went so far as to plant its flag on the seafloor under the North Pole.
• 05:00 - 05:30 And if push comes to shove, Russia likely won't concede its North Pole claim to the tiny nation of Denmark, whose claims overlap with theirs. Russia is easily the biggest player in the Arctic neighborhood. Half of the Arctic is flanked by Russian coast and they easily wield the most influence and they have the most to gain from global warming and the ice melting. And so they're refortifying and renovating a lot of their strategic outposts here in the Arctic. 50 airfields by 2020,
• 05:30 - 06:00 putting special forces. They're training, holding military exercises in the Arctic. In recent years Russia has been reopening, fortifying, and building new military bases in the Arctic region. They've been publicizing their military exercises, which include reindeer, huskies, and soldiers in uniforms that look like they belong in a Star Wars film. Russia is sending us important signals, that in the Arctic, they will project their own power and capabilities and I don't see a sufficient response from the US and NATO, to recognize that increased military position.
• 06:00 - 06:30 One of those outposts is the town of Barentsburg, which is right behind me, here on the island of Svalbard. Barentsburg isn't a military facility, like all those other dots on the map, but
• 06:30 - 07:00 it serves a similar purpose. And to understand why Russia wants a town on this island, you have to understand Svalbard. It's unlike any other piece of land on earth and not only because it's the northernmost inhabited part of the planet. The Svalbard treaty, signed in 1920, says that any country who has signed the treaty can have its people on Svalbard and exploit the land for commercial or economic purposes. The land technically belongs to Norway, but 45 countries have signed the treaty and so 45 countries have economic claim to this land.
• 07:00 - 07:30 The one rule is that no nation, including Norway, is allowed to have military assets on Svalbard. So Russia set up a coal mine up here, not to make money. Russia pays for these coal miners to be here to sink economic roots into this land. If there's ever dispute about boundaries or if oil is someday found off the shores of Svalbard, Russia will be at the table where those discussions are happening and Barentsburg will be their bargaining chip. It's their claim to this land. What's most fascinating to me, is that this strategy plays out with people.
• 07:30 - 08:00 The people living here in Barentsburg are effectively placeholders for a Russian strategy for the Arctic. And yet when you talk to them that's not really on their mind. They're not thinking about geopolitics, they're not thinking about the changing landscape of the Arctic, and what that means for Russian policy.
• 08:00 - 08:30 For Russia, coal has been their main economic activity, it's what they've been doing here for years, but coal is in decline and their operation is slowly losing people and interest and so they're realizing they have to pivot to a different economic activity, that is more sustainable for the future. And for them the answer is tourism. On Svalbard, it's kind of clear: the coal mining era, is something which is, you know, disappearing.
• 08:30 - 09:00 It's a bust. Tourism, science, nature protection is its future. You can see Russia's renewed interest in this island taking place when you walk around the town of Barentsburg. The consulate is undergoing some renovation right now. They're like gutting the whole thing and renovating after years of neglect. It's a small village of a few hundred people and it has an entire consulate. This consulate serves more as a statement than a functional asset for the Russian government. All these renovations suggest that they expect this ghost town to become a major tourist destination, but
• 09:00 - 09:30 making money isn't the motivation here. Of course it's impossible that Barentsburg one day will support itself without any funding from the government. It's impossible. The pivot to tourism isn't just about keeping deep economic roots in Barentsburg. It also serves a purpose of turning Barentsburg into a spectacle, for people to see just how much Russian identity is tied to the Arctic. Newly refurbished buildings, new Arctic theme bars, museums that tell the story of Russian presence in the Arctic.
• 09:30 - 10:00 These aren't military bases or airfields, but this sort of projection of culture and identity goes a long way in creating association with a place, in exerting influence. It's called soft power. Funding all of this on a faraway island that belongs to Norway, is the epitome of soft power. And it's a perfect complement to Russia's surge in hard power in the Arctic. Remember all those dots? The most long-range air patrols with bear bombers since the Cold War,
• 10:00 - 10:30 forty five thousand troops, three thousand four hundred military vehicles, forty one ships, fifteen submarines, and a hundred and ten aircraft. What do you think Russia's trying to achieve in the Arctic with that massive military buildup? I don't know. I believe, however, that we are going to have to figure it out. But up until now Russia has been playing by the rules on the maritime borders front. Following all the UN protocol and making claims in a very orderly fashion, but they've also shown some provocative
• 10:30 - 11:00 behavior in protecting their influence in the region. On the one hand for Russia to benefit economically from the Arctic, it has to be a stable cooperative environment. The best thing you can do to spook off companies and economic investment, is to think that the region could be prone to conflict. But we have to remember that this is the government that annexed Crimea a few years ago. It's a government that's not afraid to project power in its neighborhood. They're showing us both tracks, sort of this dual policy of wanting to be open
• 11:00 - 11:30 for business, but be able to growl a little bit and show its muscular teeth for its military and those two, eventually they're a little incompatible. This region is changing fast. The treaties and norms that have kept it in order for years are becoming incompatible with the physical realities. As the ice melts, the region will become more valuable. New borders will be drawn,
• 11:30 - 12:00 and new opportunities to project power will emerge. We can only hope that Russia continues to play by the rules. My favorite part about being in the Arctic while I was making this story, was going on these late night hikes. A lot of the footage in this video was shot after midnight, when the sun would kind of just hover around the horizon. The light would be beautiful for hours at a time. And it was just such a crazy experience to watch the sun never set.
• 12:00 - 12:30 Anyway, thanks for watching the second episode of Borders, I published the first episode last week. And I'm going to continue to publish these every week, on Tuesdays. I also want to say a big thank you to lululemon, who is a sponsor of Borders. They sent me these ABC pants, which are these sturdy pants are used for both active hiking, as well as just kind of lounging around. They're super comfortable. Thank you lululemon for sending me these ABC pants, but more importantly thanks for supporting Borders, and for making this whole thing happen.
• 12:30 - 13:00 If you want to check out these ABC pants, I'm going to leave a link here, where you can go over to the lulu shop online, and check them out for yourself. That's it, stay tuned: one week from now, I'm releasing the next episode of Borders.