The future history of the Arctic by Charles Emmerson

441 Pages·2010·8.356 MB·English

by  Emmerson, Charles

4/COLOR PROCESS
SOFT TOUCH mATTE-LAmINATION
(continued from front flap) Current events/histOry $28.95/36.50 CAN
Long at the edge of our mental map of the world,
One hundred years agO,
the Arctic has found its way to the center of the issues
“ The last century began with the Arctic as a setting for heroism, romance, and tragedy as men
which will define our world in the twenty-first century: Arctic explorer Robert Edwin Peary sent a telegraph to
challenged its extremes and its status as the earth’s final frontier. This century begins with our
energy security and the struggle for natural resources, U.S. President William H. Taft announcing that the Stars
focus on the fragility of the Arctic environment and the perilous consequences that await if we
climate change, the return of great power competition, and Stripes had been nailed to the North Pole, and offer-
do not muster the will of the planet to save it. As the century unfolds, we will no doubt come to see
the remaking of global trade patterns…. ing to put the place at his disposal. Taft was bewildered:
This engrossing book tells the story of how that is the Arctic in other, new ways—as a place where mineral riches and disputed boundaries create “Thanks for your interesting and generous offer. I do not
happening and how it might happen—through the stories serious geopolitical tensions...and opportunities. Charles Emmerson does an exceptional job of know exactly what I could do with it.”
of those who live there, those who study it, and those bringing this vital region to life even as he clearly frames the challenges we are likely to face.” For thousands of years, the Arctic was deemed
who will determine its future. —DaviD Rothkopf, author of Superclass and Running the World, columnist for largely uninhabitable, home only to a small, indigenous
Foreign Policy, and former senior official in the Clinton administration population viewed as having been left behind by history.
The unknown North fascinated and inspired explorers
and writers—but was considered marginal to world
“ This engrossing book will fascinate would-be explorers, foreign policy buffs, and all those who
affairs. Even in the last century, it remained to many of
care about our global environment. Charles Emmerson shows why the world’s ice cap is where
much of our world’s future history will be written.” —ChRis patten, chancellor of us largely a symbolic place, a land of pristine beauty
unchanged by time, even as it became an arena for Cold
oxford University, chairman of the international Crisis Group
LIN War superpower rivalry.
m
TO Now, that picture of an unchanging and untouched
O “ Deeply insightful....Whether talking about the dilemmas of energy security and climate change,
LE North will have to change. The Arctic is heating up. It is
past and present security challenges in the Arctic, or the fascinating history of our popular view
Charles emmersOn heating up literally, with temperatures there rising faster
has been a Global
of the Arctic as a region, Emmerson’s account is always clear-headed and elegant, weaving
than anywhere else on the planet, melting the Arctic ice,
Leadership Fellow and an Associate Director of the World
an extraordinary range of subjects into a compelling narrative, highlighting the prospects for bringing both the prospect of a relatively open Arctic
Economic Forum, heading the World Economic Forum’s
collaboration and competition in a region of ever greater strategic, environmental, and economic Ocean and the risk that climate change will accelerate,
Global Risk Network and acting as their resident geopo-
importance to the world. Emmerson explains, cogently and clearly, why the Arctic matters.” with global consequences.
litical specialist. Formerly, he worked for the International
—klaUs sChwab, founder and executive chairman, world economic forum And it is heating up politically, as the six Arctic
Crisis Group foreign policy think tank. He graduated top of
nations—the U.S., Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and
his class from Oxford University, and as a recipient of an
“ With elegant prose and an eye to important details, Emmerson puts the scramble for control of Iceland—contemplate how to access and control the terri-
Entente Cordiale scholarship, studied international rela-
the Arctic into historical context. Along the way he documents his own travels through the the tory’s natural resources; as Greenland, long governed by
tions and international public law at the Institut d’Etudes
Denmark, embraces greater independence; and as India,
Politiques de Paris. He now lives in London. region, encountering oil barons, mining engineers, Inuit communities, foreign ministers, and sun-
future
dry other characters who are shaping the Arctic future.” —DaviD G. viCtoR, professor, China, and other rising nations begin to see the Arctic as
unavoidably bound to their own strategic futures.
University of California at san Diego, and director, histOry
In The Future History of the Arctic, geopolitics expert
laboratory for international law & Regulation
Of the Charles Emmerson leads readers on a vivid intellectual
journey through the landscape, history, literature, and
arCtiC
politics of the North, from the wrongheaded theories of
the ancients to diplomatic intrigues on the Arctic’s border-
Charles
lands, the brutality of the Soviet gulag archipelago, and
emmersOn
JACkET DESIGN by PETE GARCEAU the region’s emergence as a strategically important
PHOTOGRAPH OF ICEbERG © GETTy ImAGES $28.95/36.50 Can source of energy. Exploring the forces which have shaped
PHOTOGRAPH OF OIL RIG © ISTOCkPHOTO
the Arctic’s past, he informs our thinking about its future,
ISBN 978-1-58648-636-5
5 2 8 9 5 opening a thousand windows on a place every bit as fasci-
nating and beautiful as we always thought—yet more
available as an e-bOOk 978-1-58648-625-5
complex, more varied and, in the end, more dark.
visit www.publiCaffairsbOOks.COm (continued on back flap)
9 781586 486365 wwwwww..ppuubblliiccaaffffaaiirrssbbooookkss..ccoomm
sign up fOr Our newsletter
SPOT GLOSS LOCATED ON SEPERATE LAyER
IN INDESIGN FILE
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page i
THE FUTURE HISTORY OF THE ARCTIC
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page ii
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page iii
THE
FUTURE
HISTORY
OF THE
ARCTIC
CHARLES
EMMERSON
PUBLICAFFAIRS
New York
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page iv
Copyright © 2010 by Charles Emmerson.
Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a member of the Perseus
Books Group.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th
Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107.
PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the
U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more
information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus
Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call
[phone], ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].
Book Design by Timm Bryson
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Emmerson, Charles.
The future history of the Arctic / Charles Emmerson.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58648-636-5 (hardcover)
1. Arctic regions—Discovery and exploration. 2. Arctic regions—
Environmental conditions. 3. Geopolitics—Arctic regions. I. Title.
G606.E36 2010
909'.0913—dc22
2009035094
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page v
FOR MY PARENTS,
who are responsible for much more than they know
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page vi
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page vii
CONTENTS
Illustration and Photo Credits ix
Introduction xi
Part I—Visions
1. Oracles and Prophets: Rethinking the North 3
2. Through a Glass Darkly: The Soviet Arctic 25
Part II—Power
3. Northern Designs: The Making of the American Arctic 61
4. Scramble: Dividing the Arctic 81
5. Parade Ground: War and Peace in the North 101
Part III—Nature
6. Signs: Nature’s Front Line 127
7. Consequences: Reworking Geography 151
Part IV—Riches
8. The (Slow) Rush for Northern Resources 169
9. Russia’s Arctic Dilemma 195
10. End of Empire in Alaska 223
11. Balance: Norway and the Arctic Model 245
vii
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page viii
viii Contents
Part V—Freedom
12. Greenland’s Search for Independence 263
13. Selling Iceland: The Grand Illusion 291
Epilogue 313
Acknowledgments 315
Notes 321
Selected Bibliography 385
Index 391
1586486365-Emmerson _Layout 1 12/14/09 12:18 PM Page ix
ILLUSTRATION AND PHOTO CREDITS
() Greenland. Photograph by Charles Emmerson.
(, ) Illustrations by Édouard Riou in Voyages et aventures du capitaine Hatteras:Les
Anglais au Pôle Nord(The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras: The English
at the North Pole). Bibliothèque d’éducation et de récréation, Paris, .
() Fridtjof Nansen. Photograph published by Bain News Service, April , .
George Grantham Bain Collection, courtesy Library of Congress.
() Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Photograph published by Bain News Service. George
Grantham Bain Collection, courtesy Library of Congress.
() “The Path of Supremacy” from The Northward Course of Empire. Vilhjalmur
Stefansson, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London, .
() Josef Djugashvili, a.k.a. Stalin, . Photographer unknown. David King/David
King Collection.
() Stalin greeting Valerii Chkalov, . Photographer unknown. David King/David
King Collection.
() SSSR na stroike, May . David King/David King Collection.
() “Vstrecha” (Return), photo-montage celebrating the  airlift of survivors from
the Cheliuskin. David King/David King Collection.
() Construction of the Belomorkanal (White Sea Canal), –. Photographer
unknown. David King/David King Collection.
() Solovetsky monastery, . Photograph by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, courtesy
Library of Congress.
ix