12 November 2016

THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC MEETS THE CHINESE NEW SILK ROAD


In this article on the development of the energy, business and military nexus of the Arctic by Russia, the Red (Team) Analysis Society studies how the Russian Arctic is becoming a new crucial business and strategic “centre” in the world, through the creation of numerous energy and infrastructure projects and operations, which attract Chinese companies (Jean-Michel Valantin, “Russian Arctic Oil: a New Economic and Security Paradigm?”,The Red (Team) Analysis Society, October 12, 2016).

In effect, the Russian political, industrial and business authorities turn this immense extreme region into an international attractor, thanks to the combination of the consequences of climate change and of the natural resources, which become accessible because of the warming of the region and thus relative retreat of ice (see below in part 1, the 28 Oct 2016 NASA video visualising the retreat of the Arctic ice since 1984).

The Russian strategy is efficient with, among others, the Chinese and Norwegian business and strategic actors, as well as interests. The Russian Arctic attractor is deeply dominated by Russia’s understanding and strategic vision of a quickly and massively changing planet (Jean-Michel Valantin, “The Arctic, Russia and China’s Energy Transition“, The Red (Team) Analysis Society, 2 February, 2015) and “The Planetary Crisis Rules (Part 1)”, The Red (Team) Analysis Society, 27 January 2016).

China is sharing with Russia the understanding of the very practical consequences of the current planetary change upon politics and the economy. Consequently, the Chinese political and business authorities take action to turn these changes to their advantage (Valantin, “The Chinese Shaping of the North”, The Red (Team) Analysis Society, 9 June 2014). This goes with the development of commercial and strategic negotiations and partnerships with Russia, the dominant power of the Eurasian Arctic region.

This phenomenon is typical of the new convergence between the current economy, geopolitics, and the emergent “Anthropocene” geological era. (Jean-Michel Valantin, “The Anthropocene Era and economic (in)security”, The Red (Team) Analysis Society, 19 September 2016). The international geophysics community thus qualified this new era because humankind has become the main geological and biological force on the planet, and this immense force is driving a planetary change that affects the atmosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere and the biosphere (J. R. Mac Neill, Something New Under the Sun, 2000).

In this article, we shall more particularly focus upon the way the current energy, industrial and military development of the Russian changing Arctic is attracting public and private Chinese sectors, meanwhile becoming the new and long-term giant support of economic, business and security development for these two countries. We shall thus see the resulting interlocking of the Russian Arctic strategy with the Chinese “New Silk Road” initiative.

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