The Arctic Century

Mette Frederiksen's second government suffered a crushing defeat, unexpected by experts, in the March 24 elections, which elected all 179 members of the country's unicameral parliament.

Stora Enso's former Kitee sawmill could become an indoor drone training range, and countermeasures against GPS jamming could be tested at Joensuu Airport.

On March 26, elections to the Parliament of the Faroe Islands, a country with a population of 56,000 (Greenland's 55,600), will be held. Six political parties will participate, five of which advocate independence from Denmark.

The Progress Party, Norway's largest opposition party, supports exploration up to the ice edge, but is skeptical of opening areas north of this limit.

Iceland will likely hold a referendum this August on resuming EU accession negotiations, which concluded in 2013. The enthusiasm of the country's political elite for this initiative is countered by the undecided population of this country, located on the border between the Americas and Eurasia, with a tiny population of 402,000.

Canada occupies a somewhat special position between the US and Britain. Modern Canada used to be a part of British America, and it was created out of the provinces which didn't join the American Revolutionary War on the Patriots' side. This separation triggered the development of a separate Canadian identity, distinct from the US one, but geography and economy soon started to push Canada towards its Southern (and Western) neighbor. Ottawa's main trade partners are the US, not Britain. Its most important trade deal is the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico (USMCA, formerly NAFTA), and Emmanuel Todd went so far as to ask himself whether Canada is actually an internal component of the American economy. But, at the same time, its deep-rooted ties with Britain are still relevant to understand the country.

Iceland, world's top-ten aluminum producer, is one of the main beneficiaries of Israel and the United States' war of aggression against Iran. The shutdown of three production lines of the world's largest aluminum smelter Alba (1.6 million tons per year) in Bahrain led to a sharp rise in global prices for this metal, essential for the global green transition.

On an early spring morning in Milan, Italy's shipping and logistics sector gathered for Shipping, Forwarding & Logistics Meet Industry, one of the most established forums in the country's maritime industry. The agenda was, as one might expect, dominated by port infrastructure, freight rates, and the competitiveness of Italian terminals in an increasingly volatile global market. And yet, one of the opening session's contributions was devoted entirely to the Arctic...