The Arctic Race: Geopolitics at the Top of the World

The Arctic is no longer a silent white wilderness—it’s a high-stakes chessboard where the world’s great powers maneuver for advantage as the ice melts away. Once a Cold War buffer, the region now pulses with new energy: Russia flexes its military muscle and icebreaker fleet, the U.S. and Canada reinforce sovereignty and security, Nordic states anchor NATO’s northern edge, and China sails in as a self-declared “near-Arctic” power, eyeing shipping lanes and resources. Beneath the drifting ice, vast reserves of oil, gas, and minerals glimmer, while new sea routes promise to redraw the global map of trade. Yet, this scramble for riches and routes is shadowed by unresolved territorial claims, environmental fragility, and the hopes of indigenous peoples who call the Arctic home.

The Arctic’s future hangs in the balance—will it become a flashpoint for confrontation, or a proving ground for global cooperation in an era defined by climate change and shifting power? In this commentary, Farhana tried to explore how the Arctic region, the top of the world, becomes its newest geopolitical frontier.