Politics, Pride, and Precedent: The United States and Canada in the Northwest Passage

Abstract

The issue of the status of the Northwest Passage has ebbed and flowed in U.S.-Canada relations for decades, but the effect of global warming in the Arctic has moved this issue from the largely academic and legalistic realms to the forefront of bilateral (and international) relations. Intimately linked to Canadian nationalism, U.S. adherence to the doctrine of freedom of the seas, and to politics in both nations, the opposing positions held by the two states can no longer afford to be implacably held. Rather, it is time to put pride and politics aside and return to the “special relationship” between Canada and the United States in order to effect meaningful and mutually beneficial continental security.