The Future History of the Arctic: How Climate, Resources and Geopolitics are Reshaping the North and Why it Matters to the World

Description

A vivid, visionary exploration of the Arctic, the forces that have shaped it, and its emergence onto the main stage of global affairs. Long at the margins of global affairs, the Arctic now finds itself at the frontline of issues which will challenge and define our world in the twenty-first century- climate change, energy security and the struggle for the world's resources, the return of great power competition and the remaking of global trade patterns. In The Future History of the Arctic, geopolitics expert Charles Emmerson weaves together the history of the region with reportage and reflection, revealing a vast and complex area, loaded with opportunity and rich in challenges. Travelling from the oil-fields of Prudhoe Bay and the Russian port of Murmansk to the shores of Greenland and the militarised borderlands of northern Norway, he brings the contemporary Arctic to life and explains why what happens there matters to the world.

CHARLES EMMERSON was born in Australia and grew up in London. After graduating top of his class in Modern History from Oxford University he took up an Entente Cordiale scholarship to study international relations and international public law in Paris. The author of 1913 - The World Before the Great War, he has also written numerous articles for a variety of newspapers, as well as speaking widely on geopolitics to university, literary, government and business audiences.He is a Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute for International Affairs).

"As reviving as a blast of polar air, bringing the Arctic into wonderfully clear focus; one of the most impressive accounts of the contemporary Arctic I've read" -- Joanna Kavenna Spectator "An excellent primer to the economic issues of a region so recently and rudely thrust into the geopolitical limelight" -- Sara Wheeler Financial Times "It's rare to find books that treat [the Arctic] as something other than a chilly adventure playground or an excuse for reams of purple prose. Thank goodness, then, for Charles Emmerson... Ruthlessly efficient" Scotland on Sunday "A fascinating, personal and visionary book. Splendid" -- Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, author of A Blueprint for a Safter Planet "An expert on geopolitics, he writes with insight and authority" Independent on Sunday