Bush's parting shot: a Cold War in the Arctic

In its last few days, the Bush administration has stepped up its claims on the Arctic region, escalating tensions with its neighbours over the area and highlighting the region's growing importance as an economic and geo-political asset.

Released last week, the administration's NSPD66/HSPD25 Directive asserted a claim over the area on the grounds of national security, international environmental governance and scientific research. But it also highlighted energy development and maritime transportation as key factors in the decision to formally stake a claim over the region.

The directive said that defining areas in which it can "exercise its sovereign rights over natural resources such as oil, natural gas, methane hydrates, minerals and living marine species is critical to our national interests in energy security, resource management and environmental protection" .

It vowed to develop capabilities to protect those interests, specifically warning that it will take "all actions necessary" to establish the limit of its continental shelf, in the Arctic and elsewhere.

The directive noted some disputes with Arctic neighbours that it wanted resolved. It highlighted an unresolved maritime boundary with neighbouring Canada in the Beaufort Sea, and urged Russia to abide by a 1990 maritime boundary treaty that had not yet been ratified.

However, disputes over the region are unlikely to be easily resolved. In 2007, Russia pla nted a flag on the Arctic seabed using a submarine in a perceived bid to increase its claim on the area, while Canada, Norway, Denmark and the UK have also all been increasingly vocal in their desire to secure sovereignty over Arctic regions.

Environmentialists are deeply concerned that the territorial jostling will prove a forerunner for a huge increase in oil exploration in the Arctic as ice shelves recede.

The US directive appeared to confirm these fears, stating that "energy development in the Arctic region will play an important role in meeting growing global energy demand as the area is thought to contain a substantial portion of the world's undiscovered energy resources".