The Future History of the Arctic: How Climate, Resources and Geopolitics are Reshaping the North and Why it Matters to the World

A vivid, visionary exploration of the Arctic, the forces that have shaped it, and its emergence onto the main stage of global affairs.

Long at the margins of global affairs, the Arctic now finds itself at the frontline of issues which will challenge and define our world in the twenty-first century- climate change, energy security and the struggle for the world’s resources, the return of great power competition and the remaking of global trade patterns.

In The Future History of the Arctic, geopolitics expert Charles Emmerson weaves together the history of the region with reportage and reflection, revealing a vast and complex area, loaded with opportunity and rich in challenges. Travelling from the oil-fields of Prudhoe Bay and the Russian port of Murmansk to the shores of Greenland and the militarised borderlands of northern Norway, he brings the contemporary Arctic to life and explains why what happens there matters to the world.