The Polar Pivot: Great Power Competition in the Arctic and Antarctica

Once impassable and inhospitable, both the Arctic region and Antarctica are rapidly emerging as geopolitically strategic hot spots. As Ryan Burke writes in The Polar Pivot, the ice is melting and the tensions rising. In this new environment, what are the stakes? Why are Russia and China racing to increase their military capabilities and infrastructures in the polar regions? What is the United States doing to safeguard its interests and influence in response? Arguing that both poles are becoming contested military domains in an arena of great power competition, Burke tackles these questions and outlines the shift necessary in US defense policy to face a potentially looming crisis.