North Pole Arctic Map ("The North Pole")
One of the most controversial topics in the 21st century has been the clemency of the North Pole and the Arctic Ocean. With a staggering 25% of the world’s untapped oil and gas prospected to be in the region, the neighboring countries have been scrambling to attain the biggest share. Even as complaints of climate change continue to rise around the world, the upside has been the resulting accessibility of an area that has been largely inaccessible - the Arctic Ocean.
Norway, Canada, Russia, Denmark and the United States are the key players in the North Pole conflict. The international laws that have for ages protected the region and guided its utilization are on the verge of collapse with Russia and Canada being at the forefront of the controversy. A crisis is in the offing even as the neighboring countries struggle to make peace.
The conflict is further worsened by the fact that up to thirty percent of the water on earth is held up in the glaciers of the North Pole and the Arctic Ocean, making it a world resource that is of concern to many countries. The conflict in the Arctic region can be summed up into the claims that are made by the five neighboring countries around it (Borgerson 21).
Under the United Nations Law of the Sea, the surrounding countries have access to the region, but only up to the 200-mile zone that has been designated for exploitation. Recently, Russia has laid out its intent to prospect for oil in the Arctic region. Canada, on the other hand, has had one of its biggest military exercises in the North Pole. It invested heavily in Arctic patrol ships with the end goal being the development of a water port at Nanisivik (Borgerson 33).
In an effort to remind the world of its interests in the Arctic region, Canada has also been involved in public relations exercises. The Canadian and Russian prospects are but examples of the escalating interest in the Arctic Ocean and its environs. Proximity to the Arctic region is not the cause of disagreement, but the fact that it holds the greatest untapped resources.
The race to get a share of the Arctic region is wholly motivated by the desire to have a piece of the resources in the North Pole. The advancement of technology and the globalization phenomenon brings the conflict on a global platform, and it does raise the stakes of the conflict considerably. The Arctic region, in the context of the cold war, remained a security flashpoint largely. The Soviet Union and the United States nuclear submarines patrolled the area from the sea while airborne bombers patrolled the sky as the cold war raged on.
The geostrategic importance of the North Pole has continually received unprecedented growth with the passage of time. Beyond the aspect of untapped potential resources, the diminishing resources as the population spikes also highlight the importance of the region that has for years been inaccessible. The conflict enrages not because of the claims that the neighboring countries have, but because of the greed to possess a great chunk of the region (Borgerson 43).
Finding a solution to the conflict will only be made possible through equitable sharing. There is a need to develop legal and institutional policies that will allow for the attainment of equitable and fair distribution of the resources not only to the neighboring countries but also to the world at large. Going by the 1982 United Nations Convention, any sovereign state that is close to territorial waters can make a claim of up to 22 kilometers from its coast (Nordquist, Myron, and Satya 55).
Apart from the stipulated territorial borders, a country with a coast also had the freedom to develop an Exclusive Economic Zone that has a three hundred and seventy-kilometer extension. As per the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea, coastal countries also have the right to make claims to any extensions on the continental shelf that they are on. This provision encompasses the freedom to explore and utilize resources on or below the surface of a given extension in the continental shelf area (Borgerson 88).
Russia’s claim on the Lomonosov Ridge stems from this United Nations provision. They argue that it is part of their land mass extending naturally from its territory. The claims and invasions that have since been witnessed in the North Pole do raise one of the challenging conflicts in contemporary times.
The protection of the region by the United Nations law of the sea does not offer any solution to the conflict that has arisen. Revisiting the agreements may be one of the first steps, but a long-term solution can only be attained through cooperation among the conflicting countries. Legal frameworks have to be developed to help mitigate the escalation of the conflicts in the region.
Works Cited
Borgerson, S.G. The Great Game Moves North. As the Arctic Melts, Countries Vie for Control. [Online]. (2009). Available from: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64905/scott-g-borgerson/the-great-game-moves-north
Nordquist, Myron, and Satya N. Nandan, eds. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, Volume VII: A Commentary. Vol. 7. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011.
"The North Pole." North Pole Arctic Map. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.<http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/polar/northpole.htm>
