The Northern Sea Route (eBook)

PD Dr. Marcus Matthias Keupp leads the department of defense management of the Military Academy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

Contents 5
The Northern Sea Route: Introduction and Overview 7
Overview 12
Conclusion: The threat of substitutability 16
References 19
Arctic security, sovereignty, and rights of utilization: Implications for the Northern Sea Route 21
Military capabilities and conflict potential in the Arctic 22
Arctic governance, sovereignty, and rights of economic utilization 25
Implications for the general framework of the Northern Sea Route 31
References 37
International Legal Dimensions of the Northern Sea Route 39
The applicable international legal regime 40
Soviet/Russian practice - confrontation and regulation 46
The relevance of legally nonbinding rules 48
Conclusion 51
References 52
The potential of container vessel operation on the Northern Sea Route: Nautical, regulatory, and operative issues 53
Nautical issues 53
Regulatory issues 58
Considerations for the NSR’s future container shipping potential 61
References 67
Through the Northern Sea Route by Stena Polaris: A logbook 69
Day 1 69
Day 2 70
Day 3 70
Day 4 71
Day 5 72
Day 6 72
Day 7 73
Day 8 75
Day 9 76
Day 10 77
Day 11 78
Day 12 78
Day 13 79
Day 14 81
Day 15 82
Day 16 82
Day 17 83
Day 18 83
Day 19 84
Day 20 84
Day 21 85
Day 22 86
Day 23 86
Day 24 87
Day 25 87
Day 26 87
Day 27 88
Day 28 88
The capacity potential of the Northern Sea Route by 2050 89
Methods 90
Transport volume vs. capacity potential: Factors of ocean route choice 91
The capacity potential of the NSR by 2050 98
Reassessment from a 2015 viewpoint 103
References 105
The Northern Sea Route as an alternative container shipping route: A hypothetical question or a future growth path? 106
Traffic volume and operative aspects 107
A model for estimating the slot cost of an NSR transit 108
Conclusion 118
References 120
Go west: The insignificance of eastbound shipping for Russia’s extractive industry 121
Commodities in the Russian Arctic 121
Logistics and shipping infrastructure for seaborne commodity export 126
Implications for eastbound traffic and transport volume on the NSR 128
New traffic induced by current oil and gas drilling projects in the Russian Arctic 130
Conclusion 132
References 134
About the authors 136