Aboard an icebreaker, a writer got a closer look at the Arctic's 'Sea Change'
Writer Rana Foroohar explores the increasing geopolitical importance of the Arctic as melting ice opens new shipping lanes and reveals valuable natural resources. The region is becoming a focal point for competition between global powers like the U.S., China, and Russia.
Why it matters
The Arctic is emerging as a critical zone for global trade, military strategy, and the protection of essential undersea communication infrastructure.
As polar ice melts in the Arctic , shipping lanes are opening up , making the region a new zone of superpower competition. Writer Rana Foroohar got an up-close look aboard the USS Healy, a Coast Guard icebreaker. She says that traversing the North Pole by ship — once a "largely conceptual" route — is now becoming a "real possibility" for two or three weeks a year.
"If you are taking one of these Arctic routes, you can save as much as 40% of the time it would take you to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and depending on the price of oil, that's a heck of a lot of money," she says. "China and Russia together are clearly trying to make the top of the world an area over which they have the most interest."
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