There is a growing tendency among many Western nations to defer to Germany the responsibility for dealing with an ever more recalcitrant Russia. Despite the perils involved, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with her Russian language skills and East German upbringing, has been obliging. Indeed, Russia’s policies towards the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) often have their first port of call in Berlin.

Recent literature on the geopolitical consequences of Arctic climate change has been significantly advanced by Marlene Laruelle’s Russia’s Arctic Strategies and the Future of the Far North. In many respects, it is a book whose time has come. Since the Arctic re-emerged on the global stage following record low sea ice extent in 2007, there has been a succession of rapid-fire publications on the politics of Arctic climate change. Most have lacked the depth, perspective and interdisciplinary approach required to understand the region.

The Arctic is beginning to test the stage-managed optics of China and Russia’s ‘strategic partnership’. Friction was most recently on display after the Arctic Council’s May 2013 decision to confer permanent observer status on Beijing. The Chinese media celebrated the move as an affirmation of the nation’s ‘legitimate rights’ in Arctic affairs.1 Russian officials were much less enthusiastic.