scholarly journals The Northwest Passage in the Arctic: A Brief Assessment of the Relevant Marine Transportation System and Current Availability of Search and Rescue Services

Logistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Rebecca Sheehan ◽  
Dimitrios Dalaklis ◽  
Anastasia Christodoulou ◽  
Megan Drewniak ◽  
Peter Raneri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transportation System ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
Maritime Transportation ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Marine Transportation ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Traffic Routing ◽  
Brief Assessment

The analysis in hand provides a brief assessment of the United States’ and Canada’s marine transportation system and relevant search and rescue (SAR) support in relation to the Northwest Passage, with the purpose of examining to what extent these countries’ relevant infrastructure resources are able to meet the expected growth of shipping operations and business activities in the Arctic. Through an extensive literature review, this assessment will specifically describe the most important influences upon the maritime transportation system, with the issue of certain geographical details and the capabilities of existing ports standing out. Additionally, vessel activity trends and vessel traffic routing measure initiatives will be examined. Furthermore, the SAR infrastructure details and means to render assistance to people in distress along the Northwest Passage will be discussed. The reality remains that port characteristics are limited and vessel traffic routing measure initiatives and upgrades to SAR assets are commendable but slow-paced. It is true that both the United States and Canada are taking proper measures to build up infrastructure needs, but they both may run out of time to put adequate infrastructure in place to deal effectively with the changing environment.

scholarly journals Ice-Breaking Fleets of the United States and Canada: Assessing the Current State of Affairs and Future Plans

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 703
Author(s):  
Megan Drewniak ◽  
Dimitrios Dalaklis ◽  
Anastasia Christodoulou ◽  
Rebecca Sheehan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Maritime Transportation ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Ice ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Ice Coverage ◽  
Current State ◽  
State Of Affairs

In recent years, a continuous decline of ice-coverage in the Arctic has been recorded, but these high latitudes are still dominated by earth’s polar ice cap. Therefore, safe and sustainable shipping operations in this still frozen region have as a precondition the availability of ice-breaking support. The analysis in hand provides an assessment of the United States’ and Canada’s polar ice-breaking program with the purpose of examining to what extent these countries’ relevant resources are able to meet the facilitated growth of industrial interests in the High North. This assessment will specifically focus on the maritime transportation sector along the Northwest Passage and consists of four main sections. The first provides a very brief description of the main Arctic passages. The second section specifically explores the current situation of the Northwest Passage, including the relevant navigational challenges, lack of infrastructure, available routes that may be used for transit, potential choke points, and current state of vessel activity along these routes. The third one examines the economic viability of the Northwest Passage compared to that of the Panama Canal; the fourth and final section is investigating the current and future capabilities of the United States’ and Canada’s ice-breaking fleet. Unfortunately, both countries were found to be lacking the necessary assets with ice-breaking capabilities and will need to accelerate their efforts in order to effectively respond to the growing needs of the Arctic. The total number of available ice-breaking assets is impacting negatively the level of support by the marine transportation system of both the United States and Canada; these two countries are facing the possibility to be unable to effectively meet the expected future needs because of the lengthy acquisition and production process required for new ice-breaking fleets.

IMPROVING MARINE FIREFIGHTING AND SALVAGE RESPONSE USING A NON-REGULATORY APPROACH THROUGH KEY STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-299
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Leonard ◽  
Michael Drieu ◽  
Robert W. Royall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rare Event ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transportation System ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Incident Management ◽  
Home Base ◽  
Marine Transportation ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT While catastrophic marine fires are a rare event, minor shipboard fires do have a significant potential for damage and a potential impact on the marine transportation system. As such, it is critical that responders at the federal, state, local, industrial, and contractor levels be trained and prepared to conduct timely operations to mitigate any incidents that occur. Due to the nature of services performed in the firefighting community today (fire suppression, rescue, hazardous materials response, and emergency medical services, to name but a few), time and effort is not always dedicated towards responding to events onboard vessels. As over 70% of fire departments in the United States are volunteer departments, this has the potential to become even more of an issue. In addition, shipboard fires typically require some level of participation from a marine salvor. Depending on the damage to the vessel, this may involve significant salvage activities. The number of salvors scattered throughout the United States is somewhat limited, and their home base locations dictate their response times to specific geographic areas. Critical issues that need to be addressed by senior response managers who may find themselves involved in responding to vessel fires include: 1. Establishment of an effective Unified Command to address all stakeholder issues, 2. Enhancing knowledge of regional capabilities and resources to respond to shipboard fires and resultant salvage activities, 3. Ensuring appropriate training of response personnel that meets recognized standards (such as NFPA 1405), and 4. Developing, exercising, and validating plans to respond to shipboard fires and salvage activities. Efforts throughout the Eighth Coast Guard District over the past several years have begun to address many of these issues, with enhanced incident management training, challenging exercises to validate plans, and extensive workshops to improve responder knowledge being a few of the positive steps. Only by addressing these four critical areas can response managers be assured of an effective and efficient response that would minimize the impact to the marine transportation system.

Arctic Ocean Shipping

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-88
Author(s):  
Donald R. Rothwell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Security Issue ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Ocean Shipping

AbstractArctic Ocean shipping is on the brink of becoming a critical legal, geopolitical and security issue as a result of the impacts of climate change and increased interest in the Arctic Ocean from States that traditionally did not operate within the region. The law of the sea throughunclosprovides the key legal framework for the regulation of Arctic Ocean shipping, supplemented and extended by relatedimoconventions and national laws and regulations. This framework has been relied upon by the two major North American Arctic States – Canada and the United States – to develop the legal regime for the Northwest Passage and the Bering Strait. There have been historic disagreements between Canada and the United States with respect to the Northwest Passage, and while not resolved they have to date been managed through legal and political responses. Other straits may become more strategically significant as a result of climate change, including Nares Strait between Canada and Greenland.eezand high seas Arctic Ocean navigation by foreign flagged vessels also needs to be anticipated. Multiple issues are raised with respect to maritime security and the adequacy of the existing legal regime, including how Canada and the United States will respond to interest being expressed in Arctic shipping by Asian States such as China.

US attention will shift to the Arctic

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Power ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
The Us

Significance The Arctic memorandum signals greater concern in the US defence community and Congress over rising great-power competition in the region. Russia has become more assertive militarily, while China is seeking greater presence, including in 2018 expressing interest in building airfields in Greenland. Impacts Trump’s scepticism about NATO will make coordinating with allies over the Arctic more difficult. China and the United States will both seek access to Arctic natural resources. Greater US focus on the Arctic could cause tensions with Canada over the Northwest Passage.

scholarly journals Canada and the Manhattan Crisis in the Arctic (1968–1970)

2021 ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Dmitry Volodin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil Field ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Government ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Southern States ◽  
The U.S

The discovery of a giant oil field in Alaska in 1968 sparked great interest in the United States in the Northwest Passage as a possible route for the delivery of Alaska's oil to the more southern states of the United States. In 1969-1970 American oil companies with the support of the U.S. authorities organized two voyages of the tanker Manhattan across these waters to test the viability of this route. Although Canada supported this project and took part in it, but at the same time the Canadian government of P. Trudeau adopted two new laws, which sharply strengthened Canada's control over shipping in the Northwest Passage. In an effort to prevent an open conflict with the United States, Canada did not declare all the waters of the Arctic Archipelago as its internal waters, but made a choice in favor of the so-called functional sovereignty, that is, the ability to exercise a certain set of rights over a specific territory.

Logistic problems in the Canadian Arctic

Polar Record ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 10 (67) ◽  
pp. 365-371
Author(s):  
T. A. Harwood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Weather Bureau ◽  
Weather Stations ◽  
Resolute Bay ◽  
States Weather

In 1946 the United States Weather Bureau and the Canadian Meteorological Service installed the first of the Joint Arctic Weather Stations at Resolute Bay. The network of satellite stations was extended into the Arctic archipelago in the following years on roughly a 275-mile spacing to Mould Bay, Isachsen, Eureka and Alert.

scholarly journals International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere: An International Polar Year Legacy Consortium

2016 ◽  
Vol 97 (6) ◽  
pp. 1033-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taneil Uttal ◽  
Sandra Starkweather ◽  
James R. Drummond ◽  
Timo Vihma ◽  
Alexander P. Makshtas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
International Polar Year ◽  
Network Measurements ◽  
International Polar ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Arctic Atmosphere

Abstract International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) activities and partnerships were initiated as a part of the 2007–09 International Polar Year (IPY) and are expected to continue for many decades as a legacy program. The IASOA focus is on coordinating intensive measurements of the Arctic atmosphere collected in the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, and Greenland to create synthesis science that leads to an understanding of why and not just how the Arctic atmosphere is evolving. The IASOA premise is that there are limitations with Arctic modeling and satellite observations that can only be addressed with boots-on-the-ground, in situ observations and that the potential of combining individual station and network measurements into an integrated observing system is tremendous. The IASOA vision is that by further integrating with other network observing programs focusing on hydrology, glaciology, oceanography, terrestrial, and biological systems it will be possible to understand the mechanisms of the entire Arctic system, perhaps well enough for humans to mitigate undesirable variations and adapt to inevitable change.

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE USA AND CHINA IN THE REGIONS OF THE WORLD, AFFECTING THE REALIZATION OF RUSSIA'S INTERESTS. Part 1: country interests and activities

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (10) ◽  
pp. 149-166
Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Gordienko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

The paper examines the interests of Russia, the United States and China in the regions of the world and identifies the priorities of Russia's activities in Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Asia-Pacific region, the Arctic, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, their comparative assessment with the interests of the United States and China. An approach to assessing the impact of possible consequences of the activities of the United States and China on the realization of Russia's interests is proposed. This makes it possible to identify the priorities of the policy of the Russian Federation in various regions of the world. The results of the analysis can be used to substantiate recommendations to the military-political leadership of our country. It is concluded that the discrepancy between the interests of the United States and China is important for the implementation of the current economic and military policy of the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals OFFENSIVE STRUCTURAL REALISM AND RUSSIAN EXPANSION IN THE ARCTIC

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon C. Halaychik
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Structural Realism ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Russian Government ◽  
The North ◽  
The Russian Federation

The Russian Federations drive to reestablish itself as a global power has severe security implications for the United States, its Arctic neighbors, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a whole. The former Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe Admiral Mark Ferguson noted that the re-militarization of Russian security policy in the Arctic is one of the most significant developments in the twenty-first century adding that Russia is creating an “Arc of steel from the Arctic to the Mediterranean” (Herbst 2016, 166). Although the Russian Federation postulates its expansion into the Arctic is for purely economic means, the reality of the military hardware being placed in the region by the Russians tells otherwise. Implementation of military hardware such as anti-air defenses is contrary to the stipulated purposes of the Russian Government in the region. Therefore is the Russian Federation building strategic military bases in the Arctic to challenge the United States hegemony due to the mistreatment against the Russians by the United States and NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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