Oct 2025: Book by Mia Bennett and Klaus Dodds, Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic
A new book examining the rapid climate and geopolitical shifts in the Arctic, Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic, by Mia Bennett and Klaus Dodds, has been recently published by Yale University Press and launched in London. Mia Bennett is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Washington, founder and editor of the blog Cryopolitics, and an associate researcher at InfraNorth. Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Nowhere is the dual threat of climate change and geopolitical contest felt more strongly than in the Arctic. Sea ice is declining rapidly, wildfires are burning, and permafrost is thawing. All the while, global interest is gathering apace as the region’s frozen worlds melt into new strategic waterways, unleashing energy and trade booms. Mia Bennett and Klaus Dodds examine the state of the Arctic today, a region of experimentation for everything from subsea technologies to new forms of governance created by Indigenous Peoples who for centuries have fought for rights and recognition. Growing geopolitical competition is accompanying environmental disruption. Countries including Russia, China, and the United States are competing for commodities, access and influence while straining the cooperative mechanisms that arose after the Cold War. From rising sea levels due to melting glaciers, to tensions between great powers determined to protect their territory and resources, the Anthropocene’s impacts on the Arctic are truly global.
