ABSTRACT
While the Arctic Ocean during the Cold War had been a central theater of bipolar confrontation, today it is an area of peaceful cooperation devoid of acute military threats. In 2008 the fi ve Arctic Ocean states – Canada, Denmark with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Norway, Russia, and the USA – explicitly reaffi rmed their sovereign rights over their Arctic lands and asserted their will to solve confl icts in accordance with the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention. This chapter surveys the remaining problems in the area and whether it will be possible to solve them peacefully. In some areas, sea boundaries have not yet been fi nally delimitated, and thus can provide for tensions. Strong disagreements also exist concerning the use of Arctic marine passages such as the Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast and the North West Passage through the Canadian Archipelago. As a result of climate change, new challenges have come up in relation to the prospecting of natural resources; besides oil and gas the Arctic holds large deposits of special metals and rare earths. Resource extraction causes deep concerns about a degradation of a largely pristine environment and damages to human and animal habitats. Tensions also exist between the indigenous peoples and prospectors from industrialized countries. A regional governance system centered on the Arctic Council has been put into place but still lacks eff ectiveness.
