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Arctic Yearbook 2014
Finally, a series of briefing notes and updates of the UArctic and NRF’s joint Thematic Network on
Geopolitics and Security (the publisher of the Arctic Yearbook) provide technical and instructive
overviews of particular case studies that inform our understanding of the larger region. Here, readers
will be briefed on the past shipping season in the Northern Sea Route; new broadband technologies
for global communications via Arctic waters; particularities of seal hunting in Newfoundland; oil
drilling, mining and environmental legislation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region (BEAR); tourism
safety regulation, among others. Finally, ‘This Year in the Arctic’ prepared by Tom Fries is the
Arctic Yearbook’s annual interactive timeline that offers an overview of selected major Arctic events
that captured headlines (and our attention) throughout 2014.
Conclusions
The stakes are high in the Arctic. Some groups are fighting for their culture, their history and their
identity in this world; others are fighting to save the Arctic from would-be exploiters and believe
nothing less than the future of the planet is at risk. At the same time, investors in multi-billion dollar
capital projects will not be dismissed, nor will the sub-state and national governments that rely upon
them to fill the coffers that pay for public education, health care and infrastructure. All stakeholders
are intent on building the human capital that will further their interests, and none will be ignored. It
is difficult in 2014 to imagine them peacefully co-existing. We will soon enter a situation where it is
necessary to ask: what is the future development we want in, and for, the Arctic? Is there an
‘ultimate’ price that we will accept as the societal cost of further development? That is the challenge
ahead