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Arctic 2014: Who Gets a Voice and Why It Matters

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Arctic 2014: Who Gets a Voice and Why It Matters Polar Initiative Policy Brief Series ARCTIC 2014: WHO GETS A VOICE AND WHY IT MATTERS September 2014 CANADA AND FUTURE CHALLENGES IN THE ARCTIC POLAR INITIATIVE Rob Huebert Policy Recommendations • Canada and the United States should continue communicating with one another on matters related to Arctic sovereignty to avoid political misunderstandings and ensure proper surveillance and enforcement capabilities continue. • Canada needs to ensure it meets NORAD, and the United States’, expectations in the Arctic, while providing the resources it needs to expand its our Arctic domain awareness. • Canada will need to balance its commitment to the Arctic Council with its commitment to its own foreign policy and to NATO, specifically as relates to the situation in Ukraine. This policy brief series seeks to share with a wider audience the proceedings of the May 2014 conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center that explored emerging challenges facing Arctic governance, analyzed the goals and pol- icies of stakeholder nations, and evaluated means for promoting international cooperation. The conference was co-hosted under the Wilson Center’s Polar Initiative by the Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Asia Program, Canada Institute, China Environment Forum, Kennan Institute, and Global Europe Program. Polar Initiative Policy Brief Series - Arctic 2014 Introduction cast a shadow on the cooperation and goodwill that was characteristic of the Arctic region for Canada is a northern country that had the luxury decades. of ignoring its own north throughout much of its history. The fierce climate and the vast distances The Protection of Canadian in the Canadian Arctic have kept other countries Arctic Sovereignty and outside actors from coming to the region. Canada maintains that the Northwest Passage, For more than a century, Canada’s Arctic policy which links the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via tended to be ad hoc, reactive, and piecemeal. the Arctic, are internal waters. The position This policy began to change after the Cold War of the United States—the only state that has as Canadian policymakers saw an opportunity officially challenged Canada on this issue—is to develop a cooperative international regime that the Northwest Passage is an international that could foster stronger and more productive waterway. For decades, discussions about the relations among the former adversaries of sovereignty of the Northwest Passage have the region; at the same time, policymakers been largely theoretical since there has been could promote and protect Canadian interests. virtually no international shipping due to heavy Successive Canadian governments have focused ice. However, as the Arctic warms, there will their attention on protecting Arctic sovereignty, be increasingly long periods of open water that from Americans, and Arctic security, from the will allow for more international shipping. If the Soviets/Russians. More recently, environmental Northwest Passage is considered an internal threats are encouraging multilateral cooperation. waterway, Canada can unilaterally determine Canada has pursued this dual track primarily the rules that foreign vessels must obey while through the development of a domestic policy transiting it. If the passage is an international framework and through the creation and support strait, such as the Straits of Malacca or Hormuz, of new multilateral endeavors such as the Arctic then all vessels must be allowed passage as Environmental Protection Strategy and the Arctic long as they meet international standards. Council. Canada has been very successful in balancing and protecting both its domestic and Two international processes will soon require international interests. both the United States and Canada to revisit the Northwest Passage issue. First, there has been Canada now faces renewed challenges in the an ongoing effort by the International Maritime Arctic as forces continue to fundamentally Organization (IMO) to develop rules—the Polar transform the region and threaten Canada’s Code—for shipping in the Arctic region. These carefully created balance of interests. Melting efforts do not directly address the international ice, new transportation technologies, and a status of the Northwest Passage, but they will global increase in demand for natural resources provide the rules for all shipping that operates have drawn non-Arctic nations such as China in international waters. What would happen if and India to the vast potential of the Arctic an international shipper enters the Northwest region. Russia, a traditional Arctic power, is Passage and complies with the Polar Code, increasingly prioritizing its north for its future but does not comply with Canadian regulation? prosperity and security. However, problems and Would the Canadian Government attempt challenges far from the region are disconcerting- to enforce its rules and risk provoking those ly and increasingly making their way into Arctic supporting the rights of international shippers? affairs; the conflict in Ukraine has begun to 2 CANADA AND FUTURE CHALLENGES IN THE ARCTIC Polar Initiative Policy Brief Series - Arctic 2014 Or would it simply accept such actions, but Protection of Arctic risk facing a domestic reaction for failing to Security: NORAD “protect” Canadian Arctic sovereignty. Secondly, Russia has moved to increasingly assert its The North American Aerospace Defense control over its northern waterways—the Command (NORAD), designed for defense Northern Sea Route. It has encouraged inter- and deterrence against Soviet bombers and national shippers to use the route, but under missiles, has provided for the joint defense of its own terms; if an international shipper does North American airspace since 1957. In 2006 the not meet these terms, it is not permitted United States and Canada recognized the need passage. Will its actions eventually provoke to modernize the agreement, and decided to an American response protecting internation- eliminate the requirement to renew it at regular al shipping rights that, while directed against intervals. In what is being called “NORAD Russia, would inevitably impact Canada? It Next,” U.S. and Canadian officials have begun to would be impossible for the United States to address the issue of how to improve Arctic and take a position against the Russians and ignore maritime domain awareness through NORAD, Canadian efforts to assert the same type of acknowledging that the melting ice-cover will control. make the region more accessible to maritime traffic. Russia’s resumption of bomber patrols in Canada and the United States must resolve 2007 over the high Arctic, up to Canadian, U.S., this politically sensitive issue sooner rather and Norwegian aerospace boundaries, are a than later. Canada needs to be attuned to U.S. reminder of the need to maintain this deterrence concerns regarding the freedom of navigation, capability. but it is equally important that the United States recognizes the unique environment NORAD Next will involve the modernization and of the Northwest Passage, both in terms of expansion of NORAD’s existing surveillance the environment (protection from spills and systems, including updating the North Warning accidents) and Canadian political sensitivities. system (formerly the DEW Line), a series of radar sites that run from Alaska to Greenland, Canada can best respond to these new which was last updated in 1985. Beyond developments by building on its existing NORAD Next, Canada will also need to develop capabilities for surveillance and enforcement an expanded Arctic maritime surveillance of Canadian laws and regulations in order to system, which will require a mix of satellite reassure its American allies. The more confident systems, new ground-based radar systems, the United States can be of Canada’s ability to and unmanned aerial vehicles—all of which are achieve comprehensive domain awareness of currently under discussion by the government. the region, the better the United States can be While Canada’s RadarSat II has already proven assured of protecting its northernmost flank very capable in ship detection, the Canadian from international threats that may develop in government has committed to the next the future. In return, the United States should generation of Earth observation satellite. The not actively seek to undermine Canada’s collection of additional intelligence will require Northwest Passage positions internationally. data fusion from all of these systems in order to understand the full surveillance picture. 3 CANADA AND FUTURE CHALLENGES IN THE ARCTIC Polar Initiative Policy Brief Series - Arctic 2014 To compliment these new intelligence Russian action in Ukraine. The result would be capabilities, Canada must have the ability to an Arctic Council with seven NATO members— respond to Arctic situations that may arise and Russia, which would significantly reduce the from the increase in international activity. This effectiveness of the Arctic Council in the short could run the gamut from an environmen- term and likely in the long term as well. Such tal emergency caused by a vessel to illegal a situation would also be a blow to Canadian activity such as smuggling, necessitating new Arctic policy, since Canada was the creator of vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Arctic Council and places it at the center Royal Canadian Navy as well as new aircraft for of its Arctic foreign policy. At the same time, the Royal Canadian Air Force. The government Canada has been one of
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