Since the middle of last decade, most
northern members of NATO (including USA) and Russia have had a strong interest
in solidifying their control over, and expanding their sections of the Arctic
Ocean. This appears to have been largely caused by discoveries of rich natural
resources in the floor of the Arctic Ocean, as well as the realisation that the
Arctic ice cap is shrinking every year making the Arctic Ocean more and more
navigable, and hence more useful for northern shipping.
Since the sections of the Arctic Ocean
of all the countries involved, lie next to each other, each country’s ambitions
in the Arctic quickly led to conflicts of interest; with each country
attempting to expand its part of the ocean and solidify control over it, at the
expense of the other.
Though for now this conflict largely
carries a legal character, most countries involved do not shy from increasing
their chances of success through military efforts. Canada, whose military
establishment is fairly small and unimpressive, quickly started to work on building
new Navy bases in its north, as well as on building or acquiring new ice
breakers, arctic patrol ships, and UAVs, specifically for northern patrol and
defense of its Arctic interests.
In light of the fact that unlike Canada,
Russia is a military superpower, its military efforts towards securing and
expanding its Arctic interests, can be said to be more noteworthy and far more
aggressive than those of Canada. In fact, since 2007, the Russians have
reorganized their military forces in the Arctic and considerably increased
their control over their Arctic territories with bomber planes and submarines,
and started a new armament program focused on rebuilding their northern naval
capabilities.1 Russia has also showed
readiness to organize special Arctic divisions dressed in unique uniforms,
specifically developed by the Russians for arctic operations. The president of
the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Issues has stated that this type of uniform
allows military personnel to perform military operations under extremely low
temperatures.2 Also, since 2007, NORAD jet fighters have intercepted
12 to 15 Russian bombers per year, most of which were trying to test the
defense of Canadian air space. Many of these bombers are designed to carry
nuclear warheads, and Russians have been known to fly with nuclear weapons on
board just to show that they are still a military superpower.3
Thus, it seems that it
would not be farfetched to say that a new Cold War, limited to the Arctic
region, is in effect, as all sides of the conflict are actively investing into
the expansion of their Arctic forces;4 with Russia already starting
to display increasingly threatening behaviour. However, unlike the global Cold
War of the years past, in this new local Cold War, Russia appears to have a
strong advantage because all NATO members with Arctic interests are pitting
themselves against one another instead of collaborating on repelling Russia.
Thus, Canada will have a far better chance of taking on Russia in this new
local Cold War if it avoids resisting and instead closely cooperates with the
US by accommodating their Arctic interests as much as possible in exchange for
superior military protection of Canada’s Arctic frontiers.
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