Arctic relations are fracturing. Northern military activity is at its highest level since the end of the Cold War. The idea of the Arctic as a ‘zone of peace’ has been replaced with a narrative about the top of the world as an emerging arena for great power rivalry. In 2020 alone, the U.S. Sixth Fleet recently conducted three maritime security operations in the Barents Sea, just off the Arctic coast of Norway and Russia. This followed warnings by then U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Kenneth J. Braithwaite of increasing hostility in the Arctic, noting, ‘The Chinese and the Russians are everywhere, especially the Chinese.’