Take off, 'eh, we were here first you hosers!

Ahh, new week, new blog entry. Git 'er done!
Tuesday also heralds the arrival of Defense News in my mail box and below the fold they're carrying a story on how Russia and Canada are posturing themselves militarily to secure parts, or all of the Arctic for themselves or allies. For those of you not getting the defense news, ta-da! The latest Russian National Security Strategy (still AWOL by the way) drafts floating around the net do claim the Arctic as key to Russia's national security. Russian Security Council HMFIC Nikolai Patrushev wrote in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta on March 30th that:

"The United States of America, Norway, Denmark and Canada are conducting a united and coordinated policy of barring Russia from the riches of the shelf," Patrushev wrote in the March 30 issue of the government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. "It is quite obvious that much of this doesn't coincide with economic, geopolitical and defense interests of Russia, and constitutes a systemic threat to its national security."

Glad to see Nikolai keeping the traditional russian paranoia going. Of course this forced Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to put down his Molson's and reply that Canada "will not be bullied"

Both sides have announced plans to build or refurbish naval and ground bases and establish some form of permanent or semi-permanent force in the region. I don't expect either side will be placing too large of a force up there for the simple reason that although global warming is proving wildly successful these past few decades, the Arctic is still a nasty place with winter temps in the very low negative double digits and a very short summer to conduct extended training. Logisticially, it's difficult to sustain troops in the field due to the need to transport huge amounts of fuel, food and other supplies simply to keep them alive. Basically, very little gets done over a whole lot of time.

The Canadians, for their part are maintaining a steadily growing defense budget, averaging a sustained 2% growth rate in defense spending through 2031. The latest defense (or defence) philosophy for the Canadians is that want to focus more on homeland security threats, and I'll bet this latest move by Russia has really focused their attention.

So while it will take a very long time to thaw out the Arctic, the trigger for any future build up (probably by the Russians first) will the be discovery of any new significantly large oil fields/reserves in the Arctic. Once that happens, it'll be like a good old fashioned hockey fight! If it does, I'll be rooting for Doug and Bob McKenzie, eh.
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