In this seminar, we will primarily be addressing issues, opportunities, and the future development of the Arctic in the 21st century. This is a region which is increasingly important for three primary reasons. Firstly, it is at the epicentre of a physical state change in the earth. Secondly, it is of supreme strategic importance as a key location for both US and Russian strategic nuclear activities, as a huge natural resource arena. Thirdly, as the location of a potential new global maritime trade route across Eurasia, the Northern Sea Route. Additionally, it is a working laboratory for contemporary international relations (IR) where established IR theories, practices, and strategies are all being challenged, altered, and sometimes even dismantled.
Concurrently, external advances in dual-use technologies for both economic and geostrategic applications in the Arctic, the rise of a global service economy, China’s entry onto the world stage, and the altering nature of US leadership and politics, coupled with Russian assertiveness, have perhaps surprisingly converged in both the European and Asian Arctic, and to some extent, in Antarctica too. We will be considering why this is so, what is driving these changes in the status of the poles, how change is being orchestrated, and who will benefit from potential alterations in governance, security, economic exploitation and human development in the region(s).
There are no pre-requisites for this seminar. It is helpful if you have an interest in the international political economy, and you are intrigued by high-level international affairs between the superpowers and understanding how technology is applied across vast remote regions of the world under conditions that demand sustainable development and environmental protection.
Learning outcomes
- An understanding of the contemporary International Relations of the Polar regions;
- An insight into the opportunities and threats to the Polar regions, its economies, and peoples;
- An increased awareness of how global environmental, and external political, and economic /technology changes and drivers are impacting Arctic and Antarctic life today.
