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By Evan T. Bloom* Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had tremendous impact on international relations globally. While the Arctic has generally been immune from external political pressures, the shocking developments in Ukraine led the seven states other than Russia that are members of the Arctic Council on March 3, 2022 to take the unprecedented step of formally pausing […]

By Michael Grey “They are lovely people who are going through hell”. It was a surveyor from DNV, who we happened to meet at Odessa airport, as we clutched our cardboard exit documents in the queue for what served as a departure lounge, whose words came back to me this week. It was a freezing

  By Alice Rogoff* For eight years since anonymous “little green men” from Russia invaded Crimea, the Arctic Council has continued to operate under the illusion of the Arctic nations’ “peaceful collaboration.” Russia, with its one-half share of Arctic landmass, has remained a member in good standing of the council and even become its chair,

By Michael Grey Here is a useful motoring tip that you probably will not discover in your service manual, should your new, all-electric vehicle inadvertently burst into flames. While your natural inclination might be to run for your life, it is suggested that the terrifying fire might be smothered in a blanket, or better still,

By Michael Grey* In the compromise that dictates the design of a ship, you don’t have to be cynical to observe that the needs of the crew come last, after the cargo, machinery and anything else that might remunerate the owner. The crew, it might be said “just fit in where they can”. It has

By Michael Grey* As the governmental delegates to Cop26, safely delivered home after their Scottish excursion, start to work out how they can deliver their extravagant zero-carbon pledges by the due date, it is becoming manifestly clear that it will be neither cheap nor easy. It is very easy for politicians and environmental interests to

By Michael Grey* It is funny how different items of news mesh with each other. Cop 26 is over, thank goodness and the thousands of delegates have jetted off to their homelands, leaving a heavy smell of jetfuel over Argyll, but what we are learning to call “the supply chain problem” remains. A queue of

By Michael Grey* In this world where virtue-signalling competes with the need to blame everyone, maybe we should not be surprised at the growing enthusiasm to second-guess somebody else’s decision-making. The dogs of blame are clearly out for the master of the 4526teu Zim Kingston, which in late October lost some 100 boxes over the side