The Scramble for the Arctic

In August 2007 the world reacted with consternation as Russia planted a flag beneath the ice of the North Pole, symbolising the Kremlin’ s claim to the Arctic with its vast mineral resources, and firing the starting gun on the world’ s last colonial scramble.



The Scramble for the Arctic examines the history of the region and its exploration, the current state of ownership, the legal status of the Arctic and its waters, the likely outcomes of today’ s powerplays, and what is at stake both politically and ecologically.



With the map literally being redrawn by global warming, the ownership of the Arctic will be one of the defining issues of the next decade. In this deeply informed and clearsighted account by two of the world’ s leading Arctic scholars and explorers, Richard Sale and Eugene Potapov analyse the competing interests of nations, corporations, and indeed species.