Icy futures:carving the northern sea route

摘要

The research examines intersections between globalisation and climate change in the (re)emergence of a 'Northern Sea Route' through the Russian Arctic, which some speculate could soon rival or replace the Suez Canal as major global trade artery. The research explores shifts in the contemporary shipping system, a relatively underexplored area of mobilities research, examining the affordances and risks posed to shipping and resource extraction activities by melting Arctic sea-ice, as sections of the maritime Arctic become increasingly integrated into global circuits. The research examines actual and potential developments surrounding the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in the Russian Arctic, examining the ways geopolitics, geoeconomics and geophysical processes collide in the ‘Anthropocene Arctic’.