Russian spies. Nuclear submarines. Sabotaged pipelines. Undersea communications severed in the dark of night. The fastest-warming place on earth—where apartment buildings, hospitals, and homes crumble daily as permafrost melts and villages get washed away by rising seas—the Arctic stands at the crossroads of geopolitical ambition and environmental catastrophe. As climate change thaws the northern latitudes, opening once ice-bound shipping lanes and access to natural resources, the world’s military powers are rushing to stake their claims in this increasingly strategic region. We’ve entered a new cold war—and every day it grows hotter.

In Polar War, Kenneth R. Rosen takes readers on an extraordinary journey across the changing face of the far north. Through intimate portraits of scientists, soldiers, and Indigenous community leaders representing the interests of twenty-one countries across four continents, he witnesses firsthand how rising temperatures and growing tensions are reshaping life above and below the Arctic Circle. He finds himself on the trail of Navy SEALs training for arctic warfare, embarks on Coast Guard patrols monitoring Russian incursions, participates in close-quarter-combat training aboard foreign icebreakers in the Arctic sea ice, and visits remote research stations where international cooperation is giving way to espionage and the search for long-frozen biological weapons.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and three years of reporting from the frontlines of climate change and great power competition, Rosen blends incisive analysis with the vivid immediacy of a travelogue. His deeply researched and personal accounts capture the diverse landscapes, people, and conflicted interests that define this complex northern region. The result is both an elegy for a vanishing landscape and an urgent warning about how the race for Arctic dominance could spark the next global conflict.

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Kenneth R. Rosen is the recipient of a Kurt Schork Award, a Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents, and was a two-time finalist for the Livingston Award for his work in Syria and Iraq. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, TheNew York Times, The Atlantic, and WIRED. He divides his time between Western Massachusetts and Northern Italy with his wife and their three children.

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"Immersive and richly reported...the book speaks to the moment."—The Economist

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​​"At once both immensely fascinating and alarming, Rosen’s words culminate in a robust depiction of the

Arctic climate, physically and politically. Control of the Arctic has roots in the climate crisis, making this

extensively researched and accessible exposé ideal for readers interested in science and politics

alike."—Booklist (Starred review)

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​"A wake-up call for the West"—Jonathan Beale, BBC Defence Correspondent

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Photo (c) Fondation Jan Michalski, Tonatiuh Ambrosetti