Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 04/2009

Are the northern sea routes really the shortest?

Svend Aage Christensen

March 2009

Danish Institute for International Studies

Abstract

Is the world trade soon going to use routes through the Arctic for large amounts of transit shipping? No, that is much too early, says senior researcher Svend Aage Christensen in a new DIIS Brief. Reading the headlines, it is easy to get the impression that the Arctic Ocean will soon be ice-free, but what grabs the headlines is the few weeks at the end of August and the beginning of September where new opportunities are developing. However, a few weeks’ reduction of the ice cover will not lead to a massive reorientation of the global transit routes. Supposing that large scale Arctic transit becomes physically possible some day, it still has to be economically viable as well.