Arctic politics are getting warmer

Russia’s potential Arctic-based revival will also have implications for the rise of a multi-polar world. This is a move away from the current era of dominant US supremacy to a multi-polar world in which the US will have to share power with China, European Union and Russia and other important emerging economies (such as India). 

For the US domestically, Alaska could assume greater economic and political prominence and may lead to an increased migration into the state (and so greater representation in the US House of Representatives). 

The former Governor of Alaska and 2008 former Vice-Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin was ridiculed by her impersonator comedian Tina Fey, who claimed “I can see Russia from my window”, as an illustration of Palin’s geographical ignorance. But Palin may yet have the last laugh.