The Importance of Geopolitics

The importance of Geopolitics

Geopolitics describes the geographical distribution of power around the world. It serves to explore how societies exert their influence over their own people and over other societies. It also stands for the study of how geography impacts politics, demography and economics, especially with respect to developing foreign policy and international conflicts. In this essay we are going to look at an example of how geopolitics has an impact on an energy source. We will take the example of the Arctic. A location rich in natural resources. And has conflict over what country gets to profit from it.

In 1982 a United States treaty “The law of the seas” was presented. Under this law each country receives exclusive economic rights to any natural resource that is present on or beneath the seafloor out to a distance of 200 nautical miles beyond their shorelines. Each country can extend its claim up to 350 nautical miles from its shore line for those areas that can be proven to be an extension of that country’s continental shelf.

To do this, the nation must acquire geological data that shows the geographic extent of its continental shelf. The countries which are fighting to show that the arctic is there's are several; they include Denmark and Greenland, the Inuit and Qallunaat, Russia, Canada and some members of the EU. Greenland and Denmark want to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of theirs and not Russia's. They want to discuss cooperation on accidents, maritime security and oil spills with their arctic neighbors. The Inuit and Qallunaat share different opinions and attitudes, the Inuit see the sea as a highway for travel and a platform for hunting whereas the Qallunaat see it as a danger to shipping and an impediment to their freedom.

Russia claims the arctic is their territory. They believe that a continental shelf called the Lomonosov ridge runs from Siberia on the Arctic seabed to the North Pole. Canada thinks of the arctic as a highway that should be regulated by the Canadian national law. They already spent 51 million dollars to map and identify the boundary of its continental shelf in the Arctic. They have also have spent 7 billion dollars to build and operate eight arctic patrol ships in a bid to help protect its sovereignty.