Arctic

Russia will rebuild Soviet-era Arctic monitoring stations in the Arctic, Canada’s Globe and Mail reports. The monitoring stations can be used for everything from monitoring meteorological conditions to serving as bases for research. At the height of the USSR, there were approximately 100 Arctic stations, but now, there are only 12. Speaking about Russia’s plans […]

Here’s a roundup of recent events in Nordic military affairs. Norway moves military operations HQs to High North Norway has moved its center of military operations to Reitan, becoming the first Arctic state to headquarter its operations command in the High North. This development is in line with Norway’s increasing strategic focus on the High […]

At the end of August, United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon will visit Svalbard on a fact-finding mission to learn about the effects of global warming in the Arctic. He will travel to the northerly Norwegian island accompanied by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Ban will also stop by […]

On Wednesday, Greenland’s left-wing opposition party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, won the elections with 44% of the vote. It will control 14/31 seats in the Greenlandic Parliament, the Landsting. The Siumut Party, which has ruled Greenland for the past thirty years, was ousted. The new government will form in time for expanded home rule, which begins on […]

The Governor-General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, traveled to Nunavut last week to celebrate the province’s 10-year anniversary. In Rankin Inlet, she participated in an Inuit ceremony where she ate a piece of raw seal heart. She was asked whether her consumption of the seal heart was supposed to send a message to the EU, which […]

A U.S. foreign policy analyst has suggested that the NATO-Russia Council could serve as a forum for Russia and the West to discuss issues in the Arctic. The Council had its second meeting yesterday after being suspended in the aftermath of the Russia-Georgia conflict. Dr. Charles M. Perry, vice president and director of studies at […]

For some news on the lighter side, extreme wilderness photographer Martin Hartley has just returned home after taking part on the Catlin Arctic Survey, a team of three British explorers who spent two and a half months walking across frozen sea ice, charting its thickness as they went. In total, Hartley has been on nineteen expeditions to […]

On Tuesday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg visited Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at his residence outside Moscow. The two leaders discussed cooperation in the Arctic, mainly regarding the issue of gas. Medvedev said, “The development of the region as a whole depends on how we form a coordinated position on exploring the gas fields on […]

Canada has just concluded a geological expedition in the Arctic in the run-up to its submission of territorial claims. A two-team expedition of federal geologists and oceanographers examined land from Ward Hunt Island, Canada’s northernmost point, to the North Pole. One group conducted research via a sonar probe from a helicopter and the other used […]

This year, Canada has involved itself in a number of trans-Arctic and trans-Atlantic disputes. In February, there was the military jet incident with Russia. Spats with Russia have spilled over into the NATO sphere, as Canada pushes for Georgia and Ukraine to join to the Kremlin’s chagrin. Then at the beginning of this month after […]

Like its fellow resident the polar bear, the little furry seal has been at the center of international disputes in recent weeks. There are three species of seal in the Arctic: the harp seal, the ringed seal,and the bearded seal. The harp seal is white and fuzzy when it is a baby, and this is […]

Two Arctic species – the two which happen to be the cutest and cuddliest, the poster children for Arctic wildlife conservation movements – have been in the news lately: polar bears and seals. I’ll cover the seal issue in my next post. Polar Bears To the disappointment of environmentalists, the Department of the Interior will uphold […]