The geopolitical impact of the territorial game on cryospheric countries due to climate change

Ping Wang, Debin Du

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The natural process of cryosphere changes affects the formation of national territorial geopolitical relations. Based on man-land relationship and the relationship of climate change, climate influence and its adaptation, a research framework for cryosphere national territorial games under the influence of climate change has been established, where the cryosphere territorial geopolitical order is given, including the conceptual structure, spatial structure and material structure. What's more, we analyze the country's identity of interests on the game, and further the geo-relationship on sea power and land power at Arctic and Antarctic. Research results are as follows: (1) The geopolitical institutions of the cryosphere have initially formed. At the conceptual level, which embodies the logic of traditional geopolitical theories, with nature being one of the forces of climate politics worldwide. At the spatial level, Arctic and Antarctic are the focal areas of the game between great powers when climate change turns the Arctic, Antarctic, and high mountains into new operational space for mankind. On the material level, the sea and land powers of Arctic and Antarctic are the main goals. (2) The relative position of a country in the cryosphere is the objective basis for a country to judge its own identity and interests in the cryosphere of other countries. (3) There are two types of geopolitical relations in the territorial game of cryospheric countries:“seeking advantage”and “avoiding harm”.“Advantage”refers to the fact that in order to win polar sea and land rights, world and regional powers under climate change have begun to compete for the ownership of the continental shelf 200 nautical miles away from the Antarctic and Arctic and the strategic layout. The polar regions have substantive“hard and soft existence”, and the United States and Denmark strengthen the role of Greenland as a strategic fulcrum. "Harm" refers to issues such as cross-border climate migration caused by cryosphere disasters.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2076-2091
Number of pages16
JournalDili Yanjiu
Volume41
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Aug 2022

Keywords

  • Antarctic
  • Arctic
  • climate change
  • cryosphere
  • cryospheric country
  • territory

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