The Race for the Arctic

Since he left Duke University in 2004 and returned to his native Canada to take up residence at the University of British Columbia, Michael Byers has become a frequently quoted commentator on public policy. His most recent book, Who Owns the Arctic? Understanding Sovereignty Disputes in the North, surveys boundary and jurisdiction disputes in the “Canadian” Arctic and urges the Government of Canada to cool the rhetoric, negotiate with its neighbours and play our highest trump card—Inuit occupancy in the Arctic—in the international political and legal game. In spite of Byers’s legal and academic credentials, this is a lucidly written, easily read and highly informative book—just the sort of thing members of Parliament need if they are to understand and contribute to Arctic policy. Byers is a man with an opinion and an ideology. He is also a rare breed: an academic who shuns the cloisters and the ivory tower to mix it up in public. He stood for the New...