The polar regions are thawing. Numerous newspaper and TV stories present a brewing Cold War in cold places, as major nations scramble for oil and mineral resources newly accessible beneath melted seas and shores. It’s a compelling story.

But it misses much of the truth, says Rebecca Pincus G’13. Her new book, Diplomacy on Ice: Energy and the Environment in the Arctic and Antarctic (Yale University Press, January 2015) takes a deeper look at the many storylines that define the complex diplomatic challenge of: what happens next at the poles?

The book will be launched at 3 p.m., Friday, Jan. 23, at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center, with talks by Pincus and UVM scholars Asim Zia and Kathleen Osgood. The event is free and open to the public.

Polar peace

“There are certainly some boundary disputes, but they are not that significant,” Pincus says. “There are a lot of resources up there, but they're still very hard to get to. We’re not about to see oil derricks dotting the Arctic.” There is time, she and her co-authors argue, to find enlightened approaches to managing these still ice-covered ends of the planet, using the remarkably peace-producing, decades-old Antarctic Treaty as one key case study.

Pincus developed the book, a collection of fifteen contributed chapters, while a graduate student and post-doctoral researcher at UVM, studying with adjunct professor Saleem Ali, the book’s co-editor. An expert on the relationship between national security and natural resources, Pincus leveraged her UVM doctorate into her current post as visiting professor at the Coast Guard Academy. Other UVM faculty contributed chapters, including Asim Zia, in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, and Kathleen Osgood in the Environmental Program.

Ranging from the biological impact of invasive species, to U.S. national security opportunities by engaging China over Arctic resources, to understanding the experiences of indigenous peoples — the book presents a wide scholarly effort to “shine some light on the path to achieving polar peace,” Pincus writes.