the location of bases, and extraction of resources in formerly frozen and lifeless landscapes in the poles. The role of climate change in creating new arenas of great power competition is a continuing theme in this issue. Icecaps melting, as discussed in "The American Polar Pivot: Gaining Advantage in Great Power Competition," by Ryan Burke and Jahara Matisek, presents new opportunities for expanding global influence for polar-oriented nations. Russia is rapidly expanding its presence in the Arctic, while the United States races to reopen abandoned Cold War-era Arctic bases or to create new fleets of icebreakers to compete with Russia's expanding fleet. The authors advocate an American polar pivot to counter the emerging Russian threat, particularly with the Russian Federation's construction of new polar bases and the construction of a fleet of icebreakers as well as the Chinese development of its first nuclear-powered icebreaker. They argue that America must pivot its focus to navigate and defend interests in the increasingly militarized Arctic and Antarctic, maintaining that America must be at the forefront of defending new routes of navigation due to melting icecaps.
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Tashev et al. (2019) studied this question.