Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributor Biographies
- Foreword
- Part I Introduction: Circumpolar Perspectives
- Part II European Security Interests in the Arctic
- Part III North American Security Interests in the Arctic
- 12 Canada and the Newly Emerging International Arctic Security Regime
- 13 Polar Race or Polar Saga?
- 14 The New Arctic Geography and U.S. Strategy
- 15 Arctic Security Considerations and the U.S. Navy's ???Arctic Roadmap???
- Afterword
- Index
- References
13 - Polar Race or Polar Saga?
Canada and the Circumpolar World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributor Biographies
- Foreword
- Part I Introduction: Circumpolar Perspectives
- Part II European Security Interests in the Arctic
- Part III North American Security Interests in the Arctic
- 12 Canada and the Newly Emerging International Arctic Security Regime
- 13 Polar Race or Polar Saga?
- 14 The New Arctic Geography and U.S. Strategy
- 15 Arctic Security Considerations and the U.S. Navy's ???Arctic Roadmap???
- Afterword
- Index
- References
Summary
Climate change is transforming the Arctic. The ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is shrinking in breadth and depth, permafrost is melting, and indigenous flora and fauna are threatened. Questions abound about what these changes will mean for northern peoples and for stability and security in the circumpolar world. Political rhetoric in Canada has heated up, prompted by uncertainty about Canada's hold on its Arctic. Much of this discourse affirms just how little southern Canadians actually know about the north. Although Canadians pay reverence to “the True North strong and free” in our national anthem, the stark reality is that the vast majority lived huddled along the southern boundary with the United States. Ignorance about the Arctic breeds alarmism. The promise of cooperation and dialogue with northern Canadians and our circumpolar neighbors, which seemed to frame government plans in the 1990s, is often jettisoned in recent political pledges to “stand up for Canada.” If many academics and journalists are to be believed, the circumpolar agenda is dominated by a “polar race,” with a concomitant sovereignty and security crisis precipitated by climate change and competing interests in “our” Arctic.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Arctic Security in an Age of Climate Change , pp. 218 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
References
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