Assert power in the Arctic, U.S. urged
PAUL KORING
With a report from Brad Linn
WASHINGTON -- The United States Coast Guard needs two massive new polar icebreakers to assert and defend U.S. interests in the Arctic and Antarctic, including the Northwest Passage where Washington rejects Ottawa's claim of sovereignty, according to a high-level report commissioned by Congress.
Both Canada and the United States now seem ready to build and deploy military icebreakers to the same narrow, disputed and treacherously ice-clogged straits to buttress their positions.
Global warming and receding ice will spur economic activity and shipping through the Northwest Passage and "increase the need for the United States to assert a more active and influential presence in the Arctic," the document says.
Titled Polar Icebreakers in a Changing World: An Assessment of U.S. Needs, the report was prepared by the National Research Council, a blue-ribbon academic organization to which Washington turns for policy advice. The ships are needed, it says, for the United States "to protect not only its territorial interests, but also its presence as a world power."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he will order three armed icebreakers to defend Canada's disputed claims to the Northwest Passage, and has dismissed U.S. suggestions that he was worsening the dispute. Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers are crewed by civilians, but Mr. Harper's plan for armed military vessels indicates he plans for them to be run by the Canadian navy.
"We don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters," David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Ottawa, said last January when the dispute last flared up. "Most other countries do not recognize their claim," he added.
The U.S. report makes clear that changing climate, new trade patterns and political conditions will change the Arctic -- and to a lesser extent the Antarctic -- and make it imperative for the world's sole remaining superpower to assert its interests and continue to champion the freedom of the seas.
It compares the Northwest Passage to the Straits of Hormuz, the choke point of the Persian Gulf where much of the world's oil supply transits in tankers, and the pirate-infested Straits of Malacca off Singapore, another of the world's busiest sea lanes.
"In support of national interests, the United States currently patrols the Straits of Malacca and Hormuz and is prepared to defend these important shipping lanes, but if transit routes develop in the Arctic, the United States must be prepared to patrol and defend these routes equally," the report says.
That position seems irreconcilable with Ottawa's assertion that the Northwest Passage is an internal Canadian waterway.
Curiously, the high-ranking committee of Arctic, maritime and military experts assembled to contribute to the report includes Raymond Pierce, a senior Department of Fisheries and Oceans official and former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker captain.
"Mr. Pierce's role was limited to technical and operational issues," Sophie Galarneau, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Coast Guard, said yesterday.
"He was not focused on the sovereignty aspects and played only a minor role" in the final report, she added. However, she confirmed that Mr. Pierce participated in the committee in "his official capacity" and saw the final report.
The report says "Captain Pierce is currently Executive Director of Departmental Renewal at the Canadian Coast Guard."
Both coast guards co-operate closely, routinely placing officers on the other's icebreakers. However, the two governments remain icily at odds over sovereignty issues in the Arctic.
The new polar icebreakers recommended by the U.S. report would replace two aging U.S. Coast Guard vessels. For three decades, the Polar Star and Polar Sea have opened supply routes to U.S. bases in the Antarctic.
In 1985, the Polar Sea sailed the Northwest Passage without seeking Canadian permission, which infuriated the Conservative government at the time.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...tional/America/
PAUL KORING
With a report from Brad Linn
WASHINGTON -- The United States Coast Guard needs two massive new polar icebreakers to assert and defend U.S. interests in the Arctic and Antarctic, including the Northwest Passage where Washington rejects Ottawa's claim of sovereignty, according to a high-level report commissioned by Congress.
Both Canada and the United States now seem ready to build and deploy military icebreakers to the same narrow, disputed and treacherously ice-clogged straits to buttress their positions.
Global warming and receding ice will spur economic activity and shipping through the Northwest Passage and "increase the need for the United States to assert a more active and influential presence in the Arctic," the document says.
Titled Polar Icebreakers in a Changing World: An Assessment of U.S. Needs, the report was prepared by the National Research Council, a blue-ribbon academic organization to which Washington turns for policy advice. The ships are needed, it says, for the United States "to protect not only its territorial interests, but also its presence as a world power."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he will order three armed icebreakers to defend Canada's disputed claims to the Northwest Passage, and has dismissed U.S. suggestions that he was worsening the dispute. Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers are crewed by civilians, but Mr. Harper's plan for armed military vessels indicates he plans for them to be run by the Canadian navy.
"We don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters," David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Ottawa, said last January when the dispute last flared up. "Most other countries do not recognize their claim," he added.
The U.S. report makes clear that changing climate, new trade patterns and political conditions will change the Arctic -- and to a lesser extent the Antarctic -- and make it imperative for the world's sole remaining superpower to assert its interests and continue to champion the freedom of the seas.
It compares the Northwest Passage to the Straits of Hormuz, the choke point of the Persian Gulf where much of the world's oil supply transits in tankers, and the pirate-infested Straits of Malacca off Singapore, another of the world's busiest sea lanes.
"In support of national interests, the United States currently patrols the Straits of Malacca and Hormuz and is prepared to defend these important shipping lanes, but if transit routes develop in the Arctic, the United States must be prepared to patrol and defend these routes equally," the report says.
That position seems irreconcilable with Ottawa's assertion that the Northwest Passage is an internal Canadian waterway.
Curiously, the high-ranking committee of Arctic, maritime and military experts assembled to contribute to the report includes Raymond Pierce, a senior Department of Fisheries and Oceans official and former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker captain.
"Mr. Pierce's role was limited to technical and operational issues," Sophie Galarneau, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Coast Guard, said yesterday.
"He was not focused on the sovereignty aspects and played only a minor role" in the final report, she added. However, she confirmed that Mr. Pierce participated in the committee in "his official capacity" and saw the final report.
The report says "Captain Pierce is currently Executive Director of Departmental Renewal at the Canadian Coast Guard."
Both coast guards co-operate closely, routinely placing officers on the other's icebreakers. However, the two governments remain icily at odds over sovereignty issues in the Arctic.
The new polar icebreakers recommended by the U.S. report would replace two aging U.S. Coast Guard vessels. For three decades, the Polar Star and Polar Sea have opened supply routes to U.S. bases in the Antarctic.
In 1985, the Polar Sea sailed the Northwest Passage without seeking Canadian permission, which infuriated the Conservative government at the time.
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