Michael Klare — War in the Arctic?

When I first met Michael Klare in the late Neolithic age (it was actually the early 1970s), he was already researching the U.S. military in a way no one else was doing. His first book on the subject, War Without End: American Planning for the Next Vietnams, had just been published. The title remains eerily apt, given Washington’s twenty-first-century “forever wars.” Almost 50 years later, he’s still ahead of the curve and his newest book on that military, All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change, has only recently come out.

And he hasn’t stopped yet, as you’ll see in today’s piece on a new nuclear flashpoint for the U.S. and Russia: the melting Arctic. It’s the sort of thing that, in another world, would be headline news....

Tom Dispatch
Tomgram: Michael Klare, War in the Arctic?

See also

Stated Russian policy is that any first use of nuclear weapons against Russia will instantaneously trigger massive thermonuclear retaliation against the homeland of the aggressor state by Russia's nuclear triad–land-based missiles, bombers and submarines.

GlobalResearch.ca

Step to Nuclear Doomsday: US Puts Low-yield Nukes on Submarines to Counter Made-up Russian ‘Strategy’
Scott Ritter

Also

Andrei Martyanov comments on Scott Ritter's piece.

Reminiscence of the Future
A Slight Disagreement.
Andrei Martyanov

Russia and China to Jointly Transport Siberan LNG to Asian and Western Markets — Costas Paris

China is breaking into Arctic transport through a joint venture between the country’s biggest ocean carrier, Cosco Shipping Holdings Co., and its Russian counterpart PAO Sovcomflot to move natural gas from Siberia to Western and Asian markets.

The state-owned companies will operate a fleet of a dozen ice-breaking liquefied natural gas tankers from Russia’s massive Yamal LNG project along the northern coast of central Siberia to destinations in Northern Europe, Japan, South Korea and China. China Shipping LNG Investment Co., a Cosco unit, will operate another nine such vessels, according to maritime data provider VesselsValue Ltd.…

The Arctic New Silk Road is open for business.

Checkpoint Asia
Russia and China to Jointly Transport Siberan LNG to Asian and Western Markets

Costas Paris for Wall Street Journal

Steve MacMillan — Is the Arctic home to the “New Great Game”?

The Arctic holds an estimated 13% (90 billion barrels) of the worlds undiscovered conventional oil resources and 30% of its undiscovered conventional natural gas resources, according to an assessment conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Canada, Russia, the U.S., Denmark (Greenland), and Norway are the five littoral Arctic states, with four of these states members of NATO, an organisation led by Norwegian born Jens Stoltenberg. The Arctic council is a “high-level intergovernmental forum” which consists of the five littoral states in addition to Iceland, Sweden and Finland. 

Control of the territory is a hotly contested issue among Arctic states due to its economic treasures, with a significant portion of the Arctic outside the control of any nation at present. The ability and effectiveness of the Arctic states to cooperate and discuss issues related to the region will determine the nature of this competition. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – which the U.S. hasn’t ratified – stipulates that each littoral Arctic state has sovereign rights over a maximum of 200 nautical-miles (or their exclusive economic zone) from their northern baseline. “In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources”, as stipulated by Article 56, section 1.(a), of the UNCLOS.…

As the Arctic unfreezes, it comes into play geopolitically and geostrategically.

First appeared:http://journal-neo.org/2015/02/10/is-the-arctic-home-to-the-new-great-game/

New Eastern Outlook
Is the Arctic home to the “New Great Game”?
Steven MacMillan

The Guardian — Putin likens Ukraine's forces to Nazis and threatens standoff in the Arctic

Amping up the rhetoric.

The Guardian
Putin likens Ukraine's forces to Nazis and threatens standoff in the Arctic
Shaun Walker in Mariupol, Leonid Ragozin in Moscow, Matthew Weaver and agencies

The world situation is now pretty clearly focused on the West's addiction to energy. China is a major consumer, too, and it will be serviced by Russia and Iran, likely creating an economic alliance opposed to Western interests.