Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics and Faculty Dean at Middlesex University London.
In the 19th century, the geographer and explorer David Livingstone was scathing of what he described as ‘easy chair geographers’ – authors and mapmakers who produced maps and treatises about the non-European world without ever leaving their learned society or personal office. Donald Trump is a latter-day armchair geographer. Or judging by photographs repeatedly released
With world attention focused on the US-Israel assault on Iran, US Secretary of War Peter Hegseth delivered a speech last week at the inaugural Americas Counter Cartel Conference in Florida. Hosted in a part of Miami that shares its name with an addictive benzodiazepine (Doral), the event on 5 March brought together 17 ‘American’ countries
Donald Trump is playing hemispheric monopoly. Depending on what day of the week it is, the President’s focus alternates between Venezuela, Canada, the Panama canal – and for the last twelve months or so, Greenland. Given what Trump and his team have said over the past week, their acquisition plans for the island are well
Krill – the small, shrimp-like crustacean – is a keystone species. It underpins the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, where it is estimated that between 300 and 500 million tonnes of them live. They are consumed by marine animals, including whales, seals and penguins, as well as fish and squid. But is krill now
Now that a deal has been struck with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, the government’s focus should be on the UK’s southernmost overseas territories. There are three of them: the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) and the British Antarctic Territory (BAT). As increasingly tense geopolitics make the world more hostile,
There is an ‘icebreaker gap’ between Russia and the United States. For decades, the Soviet Union and now Russia have recognised that icebreakers not only allowe their remote northern settlements to be resupplied by sea but also ensured that the waters north of this vast country were navigable. Moscow can boast that it has a fleet
In the years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the west has been forced to tackle the question of national defence with a renewed sense of urgency. As Cold War strategic planners appreciated in the last century, hostile forces can approach not just from underwater, land, sea and air, but also through space. On 9 August
Russia’s reported discovery of 510 billion barrels of oil in Antarctica has led to warnings of a new ‘Cold War’ of sorts. ‘Russia could rip up a decades-old treaty and claim oil-rich Antarctic land,’ Yahoo News told its readers. The Daily Telegraph said ‘Russia (has) sparked fears of an oil grab in British Antarctic territory’.
