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Editorial Team: The Arctic region tops the agenda at atlantic-community.org for the next week. As the melting ice cap reveals unprecedented commercial and resource exploiting opportunities, we invite our members to reflect on and debate how to make the fight against climate change prevail over states’ interests and consider the need for transatlantic leadership in Arctic governance.
The Arctic ice cap is melting. As of 2007, only 4million sq. kilometers of the once 7.5 million sq. kilometers ice shelf remain. The consequences of the Arctic melt-down go far beyond the rescue of polar bears. The Arctic region highlights future world trends in fields such as trade, energy security, sovereignty and the fight against climate change. Will these challenges, much intertwined and sometimes contradictory, lead to conflict or ...More
Ingrid Lundestad: The United States has stated an intention to become a more active and influential player in the Arctic. What is currently the US position in the region, and what will it look like in the future?
In the last few years, Arctic and non-Arctic states have demonstrated increased attention towards the Arctic region. Climate change and related prospects for increased human activity, including energy extraction and shipping, have contributed to this interest. While some argue that a northern Cold War is in the making, others see new areas for cooperation. What security interests does the United States currently have in the Arctic, and ...More
Paal Sigurd Hilde: Norway is a bright example of how moderation can prevail even when the stakes seem high. Those dreaming of an Arctic El Dorado have been sorely disappointed. Will the other states rushing to the Arctic also come to their senses?
Norway was the first country caught by the wave of interest in the Arctic that has swept international affairs in the last few years. Though it is obviously no more than a ripple in the sea of global issues, the wave has hit the shores of Russia, Canada, the EU, the US, and to a lesser extent China, Japan and South Korea. As the first state submerged in Arctic enthusiasm, Norway has perhaps also been the first to resurface. In the last two ...More
K. S. Yalowitz & R. A. Virginia: The economic downturn is lifting pressure off further harmful resource exploitation development in the Arctic region. Will the international community however seize this unexpected opportunity to tackle environmental challenges? US commitment to UN multilateralism is key.
Climate change in the Arctic is creating unexpected and complex new challenges. There is concern regionally and internationally that melting Arctic sea ice could trigger a new “great game” of international power politics as nations race to extract an abundance of newly available natural resources. Ironically, the current global economic downturn has slowed the pressure for development of Arctic energy and ...More
Klaus Dodds: The Arctic is in a state of interregnum. The opening of new shipping routes and possible resource exploitation are points of contention. While it is overblown to suggest inevitable geopolitical disorder, tensions will run high.
Two powerful factors are at play. First, accelerating sea ice loss is profoundly changing the biophysical qualities of the High North. Several hundred years ago, explorers had good reason to fear the ice. European explorers and their ships were, at times, consumed by the ice and perished in horrid circumstances. Now, it is the ice that is being unsettled.
Second, factors such as accessibility, resource potential and sovereignty are changing the Arctic. A more ...More
Joseph S. Nye: The world of traditional power politics was typically about whose military or economy would win. In today’s information age, politics is also about whose “story” wins. Social media is an essential tool in public diplomacy, but can easily turn into credibility-killing propaganda when misused.
National narratives are, indeed, a type of currency. Governments compete with each other and with other organizations to enhance their own credibility and weaken that of their opponents. Witness the contest between the government and protesters after the Iranian elections in June 2009, in which the Internet and Twitter played crucial roles, or the recent controversy between Google and China.
Reputation has always mattered in world politics, but credibility has ...More
Roland Popp: Counter-terrorism operations in Yemen have proven to be difficult. While the West has recognized that a broad civil-military strategy for Yemen is required, strengthening the central government in Sanaa does not lead to a diminished terrorist threat. Western governments should prioritize the country’s regional integration and mediation efforts.
Since the failed terrorist attack on a passenger aircraft approaching Detroit airport on 25 December 2009, international attention on the situation in Yemen has been increasing. The young Nigerian would-be bomber had apparently been trained in Yemen. Against this background, Western governments in particular have referred to the growing importance of this southern Arabian country as a base and safe haven for the al-Qaida network. Accordingly, ...More
Jackson Janes: In order to maintain its relevancy, NATO must convince the world that is as important now as it was 60 years ago. To to this, NATO should re-affirm its commitment to collective defense within a twenty-first century security context, properly resource deployments, and more equally share burdens.
"Demilitarization of Europe"A line in a recent speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates set off a number of alarm bells in Europe about rising friction in the transatlantic relationship. Expressing concern about what he sees as increasing aversion to the uses and risks of military force among European publics, Gates warned about the danger of miscalculations based on perceived weakness as well as the problem of securing sufficient resources and capabilities to meet ...More
Stefanie Babst: Although NATO and women are not two words that typically go together, the organization is taking a number of actions to increase the representation of women both in policy and on the ground. NATO is an active supporter of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security.
NATO and women – words that do not necessarily make a natural connection in peoples’ minds. It is either men in uniform or in dark suits, the diplomats’ preferred outfit, that populate NATO’s corridors and committee rooms and, more importantly, take decisions. Still, you must look hard to find women at NATO’s senior political level: the French Ambassador is an exception: being the only woman at the table of the North-Atlantic ...More
Juliette Dixon: With the declining influence of the US, an ageing, slow moving EU and the threatening rise of China, stronger cooperation between the powers in such a sensitive context should be looked at more closely. The culture gap between the East and the West is vivid and prevents the Western powers from finding common ground with the Chinese partner.
February’s Munich Security Conference provided the perfect context for a discussion of the shift in the global balance of power. The Kennedy-Institute at the Free University, Berlin hosted a discussion to question the nature of the future direction of the relationship between the United States, China and Europe: cooperation, competition or conflict? Moderated by Andreas Etges, Professor of History at the JFK Institute, the panelists ...More
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