Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic

The Arctic could be the next front in a new cold war that rapidly alters the balance of geopolitical power, journalist Rosen argues in this captivating debut investigation. Two years of travel to the Arctic regions and hundreds of interviews bolster Rosen’s hypnotic descriptions of the frigid crossroads where nations vie for domination and control. Through peripatetic wanderings, tag-alongs on Norwegian icebreakers and U.S. Coast Guard cutters, and tours of international air bases, Rosen identifies the alarming consequences of climate change and their impacts on a host of international security and scientific concerns. Particularly worrying is Russia’s “vision and strategy” for arctic supremacy since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has hampered scientific expeditions and crucial data sharing, leaving scientists “exhausted and limited at a critical time for climate-change science.” What data can be gleaned is highly alarming: Rosen cites predictive modeling that shows the Arctic Ocean could see “ice-free summers” by 2030. However, rather than prompting nations to address climate change, this data seems to only be amping up the “urgency to stake a claim to the spoils of the rapidly melting arctic.” Spotlighting America’s “years of relative inattention” to the region, Rosen somberly warns that “while the American Arctic sleeps... the European Arctic prepares for war.” Both lyrical and deeply reported, it’s an ominous wake-up call. (Jan.)