The Arctic and the East-West Nuclear Confrontation

Not so long ago, the Arctic was a region of low tension and high cooperation. In the brief interlude from the final years of the Cold War and Mikhail Gorbachev’s famous 1987 call to establish the Arctic as a zone of peace to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, several notable agreements on international cooperation were reached. But Today’s headlines and commentaries reflect a starkly different regional and strategic climate, and these heightened strategic tensions are exacerbated by the ways in which Russian and NATO nuclear weapons-related forces are now operating in the region.

A logical, if modest, policy response would be to seek a mutual agreement or arrangement to curtail ASW operations against second strike deterrent forces in designated areas.

Read the full policy brief at the Centre for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa.