The heating Arctic has become a key issue in global politics. While Canada, China, Russia, and the United States increasingly send icebreakers, submarines, and other vessels to the Arctic, the ice itself continues to recede. Trade routes that kings and explorers have sought after for centuries are opening for the first time in human history, offering greater opportunities for human traffic, cultural exchange, science, the extraction of resources, and the transfer of goods from Asia to North America and Europe. With more Arctic land mass than any other country apart from Russia, Canada is a major player in the region, eagerly defending its sovereignty over its vast Arctic Archipelago.

Meanwhile, many other countries play pivotal roles in the region. In a famous stunt in 2007, Russia sent submarines to plant the Russian flag on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean exactly at the North Pole, at a depth of 4,300 metres. In 2014, the Kingdom of Denmark, which still includes Greenland, claimed a massive piece of the Arctic seabed that overlaps with more than 500,000 square kilometres claimed by Russia. Denmark’s claim is, however, uncertain, as a majority of the people of Greenland share a vision of independence and value highly their cultural kinship to the peoples of the Canadian Arctic. China and others show a still keener interest in the Arctic’s large and untapped wealth of zinc, iron, nickel, uranium, rare-earth metals, and other strategic minerals - all in the midst of the environmental upheaval caused by climate change.

In Cold Rush Martin Breum travels through and describes the new quest for the Arctic and the tortuous ongoing diplomatic endeavours to maintain peace, while the governments involved all develop still stronger security presences.