Arctic Shipping and Polar Seaways

Abstract

Climate change in the Arctic triggered a series of discourses about the opening up of a previously unreachable region. The long-fantasized northern routes would be on the verge of becoming actual seaways as a consequence of the melting of sea ice. In reality, navigation remains difficult in the Arctic, transits are still very limited, as sea ice is still a major constraint. The passages have always intrigued though, provoking fascination as early as when the Vikings reached the western coast of Greenland, to the vivid reaction to the Russians planting a flag on the North Pole in 2007. With climate change, the Arctic is being scrutinized more than ever; hence, the numerous discourses about navigation in particular. In this article, we analyze the development of both the Northwest Passage (NWP) and the Northern Sea Route (NSR). We then investigate the recent trends in Arctic shipping in order to put those discourses into perspective and portray the current tendency.