The earth’s polar regions have enjoyed a strategic resurgence over the past decade. In the Arctic, as ice caps recede and navigation through the Northwest passage facilitates the projection of commercial and military power, geopolitical confrontations loom on the horizon reminiscent of a bygone Cold War era.1) Indeed, the amount at stake for the United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Russia, and now China at the earth’s northern pole has led to a steady escalation of force one pundit dubbed the new “Arctic great game.”2) Great power competition in Antarctica, too, is on the rise. There, strategic rivals increasingly assert territorial claims, contend for natural resources, and expand their scientific influence at earth’s southern extreme.3)
These multinational geostrategic operations—both in the Arctic and in Antarctica—are not historically unprecedented. From the time humans began pushing the boundaries of polar exploration in the early twentieth century, concerned nation-states have sought to translate polar presence into strategic advantage. Historically, the earth’s poles housed marine life harvested by the world’s great powers for pelts and oils that “helped grease the wheels that turned the Industrial Revolution.” More recently, scientists have utilized polar data to better understand the earth’s changing global climate. War, too, has been fought across subarctic islands. According to several historians, “World War II was waged partly in the Arctic4)…World War III, it was long assumed, would be.”5)
