Review by Booklist Review
Geopolitical ambitions come to a tension-filled head in a region generally known for its barrenness in Rosen's study of various countries vying for control of the Arctic region. Once a staging ground and defensive outpost during the Cold War, the Arctic later embodied collaboration through climate studies. Now, as political tensions heat up with Russia, this collaboration has dissolved, leading to a perfect storm: climate studies have a "Russia-shaped piece missing from the climate puzzle," and the U.S. finds their military outposts in the region falling far behind. Rosen spent time with the U.S. Coast Guard in the Bering Sea and conducted countless interviews on the topic of a potential Cold War happening in the Arctic, resulting in his recommendations for decreased military tensions in the region. At once both immensely fascinating and alarming, Rosen's words culminate in a robust depiction of the Arctic climate, physically and politically. Control of the Arctic has roots in the climate crisis, making this extensively researched and accessible exposé ideal for readers interested in science and politics alike.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The Arctic could be the next front in a new cold war that rapidly alters the balance of geopolitical power, journalist Rosen argues in this captivating debut investigation. Two years of travel to the Arctic regions and hundreds of interviews bolster Rosen's hypnotic descriptions of the frigid crossroads where nations vie for domination and control. Through peripatetic wanderings, tag-alongs on Norwegian icebreakers and U.S. Coast Guard cutters, and tours of international air bases, Rosen identifies the alarming consequences of climate change and their impacts on a host of international security and scientific concerns. Particularly worrying is Russia's "vision and strategy" for arctic supremacy since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has hampered scientific expeditions and crucial data sharing, leaving scientists "exhausted and limited at a critical time for climate-change science." What data can be gleaned is highly alarming: Rosen cites predictive modeling that shows the Arctic Ocean could see "ice-free summers" by 2030. However, rather than prompting nations to address climate change, this data seems to only be amping up the "urgency to stake a claim to the spoils of the rapidly melting arctic." Spotlighting America's "years of relative inattention" to the region, Rosen somberly warns that "while the American Arctic sleeps... the European Arctic prepares for war." Both lyrical and deeply reported, it's an ominous wake-up call. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A new cold war in the frozen arctic. Rosen, an experienced and thorough journalist whose work has focused on Syria and Iraq, trains his sights on a region often neglected and shows it to be of critical importance not only to Indigenous peoples and U.S. security but to polar nations of the West wary of the encroachments of Russia and China. From Alaska to Iceland to Greenland and Scandinavia, he embeds himself with researchers, scientists, fishermen, the U.S. Coast Guard, and varied military operations to reveal an arctic that is "always in a state of geopolitical and ecological recalibration," with growing tensions leading to what Rosen predicts is an inevitable conflict. Formerly a locus of partnership and cooperation, of science diplomacy and wildlife preservation, joint search-and-rescue operations, and mutually beneficial natural-resource extraction is now viewed covetously: an opportunity for expansion and military dominance, enabled by melting sea ice and the prospect of new trade routes. It is a competition that Russia and China are winning, says Rosen, who adds that matters are not helped by arrant gamesmanship, the Trump administration's "egregious campaign to 'get' and secure" Greenland, and Russian flag-planting. Rosen details the relationship between a warming planet and the region's militarization and demonstrates how Russia's greater competency in cold-weather operations and its pivotal fleet of icebreakers now dwarf America's capabilities. With decaying infrastructure, inadequate funding, and ill-prepared personnel, the U.S., once the dominant power of the arctic, has suffered a steep decline in the region, only recently waking up to the precarious position it faces--and, by extension, faced by all of NATO's arctic nations. Not one to simply explain the problems, Rosen also provides a roadmap toward effective solutions. What might have been a stilted recitation of issues is instead an engrossing, soberly rendered cautionary tale. First-class reportage on an urgent dilemma. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
