Description

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘This is a proper piece of journalism. It’s a fascinating book. I read it from start to finish in a single sitting’ Alastair Campbell, THE REST IS POLITICS

‘Anyone… wanting to understand the context of the US president’s Greenland landgrab should buy POLAR WAR’ THE TIMES

Russian spies. Sabotaged pipelines. Troop movements and threats to ‘take Greenland’. Tensions are building at the top of the world.

The Arctic stands at the crossroads of geopolitical ambition and environmental catastrophe. President Trump’s assertions on Greenland reveal a regional context where fast-moving climate change is opening up new trade routes, untapped natural resources and long-frozen biological weapons. Award-winning commentator Kenneth R. Rosen draws on first-hand reportage and testimony to document the race to control this strategically crucial territory. Can America, which since the 1990s has lagged behind on infrastructure, really reimpose its might against the superior technology and strategic engagement of Russia and China? Above the Arctic Circle, the world’s superpowers stand on the brink of a new cold war – and every day it grows hotter.

Timely and incisive, Polar War is an essential account of the interests, landscapes and people at the world’s most extreme frontier.

‘This reporting is indispensable’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A wake-up call to the West’ JONATHAN BEALE, BBC Defence Correspondent

Publisher Review

Kenneth Rosen has actually witnessed and experienced the challenges of living in this remote wilderness on top of the world and draws some sobering conclusions. Not least that Russia is leading the charge in the Arctic, while the US and its allies are still playing catch up. Polar War is a wake up call for the West to turn words into actions. — Jonathan Beale, BBC Defence Correspondent Polar War goes beyond laying out the familiar tale of looming competition and power plays in the Arctic. By anchoring the geopolitics in the realities of the region and its human stories, Kenneth R. Rosen makes an essential contribution to understanding what is really at stake at the top of the world — KEIR GILES, author of Russia’s War on Everybody Praise for Troubled: ‘An engrossing book * Times Literary Supplement * Impressive… a work of extended empathy [and] public service * New York Times * A searing chronicle of an unfortunate era… told with detail and compassion, as well as an eloquent kind of well-merited rage — Luke Mogelson, contributing writer at the New Yorker Enlightening and engaging * Kirkus Reviews *