Vincent Rigby on The End of Arctic Exceptionalism | CSIS

March 20, 2025 | Professor Vincent Rigby spoke on the end of arctic exceptionalism on a podcast episode of Center for Strategic & International Studies. Climate change and the reduction in sea ice is opening new shipping routes, and making it easier to tap the arctic’s natural resource wealth, especially critical minerals. For Canada, a country where the arctic represents 40 percent of its territory and 75 percent of its coastline, the changing arctic presents new challenges and opportunities. However, Canada’s sovereignty over its vast arctic territory is exercised by only a very small military presence on land and occasionally at sea. Together, Rigby and Christopher Hernandez-Roy discuss Canada's current force posture in the arctic and priorities for bolstering Canadian sovereignty there. They also examine current U.S.-Canada tensions, and how Ottawa can manage these without sacrificing the need for cooperation and interoperability with the United States to tackle threats in and through the arctic.