The arctic remains the world’s last frontier of human exploration. It is also a domain of great potential cooperation among great civilizations, or inversely a domain of militarism and confrontation. In recent years, Russia and China have increasingly harmonized their foreign policies around the Framework unveiled by President Xi Jinping in 2013 dubbed the Belt and Road Initiative. Since its unveiling, this megaproject has grown in leaps and bounds winning over 136 nations, accruing $3.7 trillion of investment capital and evolving new components such as the “Digital Silk Road”, “Health Silk Road”, “Space Silk Road”, and of course the “Polar Silk Road”. In March 2021,
Matt's overall concept of Arctic cooperation is a sane alternative to current policy. However, I do have concerns about what kind of development and whether it can be done with strict government regulations.
The Alberta tar sands have decimated huge tracts of land. The Keystone XL pipeline was essentially a corporate welfare project that ran roughshod through the Ogallala aquifer ignoring Lakota tribal rights and contamination issues. China and Russia may have efficient, authoritarian controls but both the U.S. and Canada show no inclination that liberal democracies are capable of respecting environmental issues except as empty rhetoric.
Matt's overall concept of Arctic cooperation is a sane alternative to current policy. However, I do have concerns about what kind of development and whether it can be done with strict government regulations.
The Alberta tar sands have decimated huge tracts of land. The Keystone XL pipeline was essentially a corporate welfare project that ran roughshod through the Ogallala aquifer ignoring Lakota tribal rights and contamination issues. China and Russia may have efficient, authoritarian controls but both the U.S. and Canada show no inclination that liberal democracies are capable of respecting environmental issues except as empty rhetoric.