Arctic security, sovereignty, and rights of utilization: Implications for the Northern Sea Route

Both Russia’s

Arktika

submarine expedition of 2007, which planted a titanium Russian national flag on the seabed below the North Pole, as well as the prediction of significant hydrocarbon and mineral resources in the Arctic waters and continental shelves (United States Geological Survey, 2008) sparked a flood of alarmist analyses and sensationalist media coverage. Brosnan et al. (2011) provide a detailed frequency analysis of this inundation. These perspectives predicted tension and armed conflict in the Arctic in the wake of significant regional rearmament, as well as a ‘scramble’ or ‘gold rush’ for resources based on the speculation that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) could not be ‘seamlessly applied.