The Xue Long Polar-Capable Research Vessel. Photo : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_icebreaker_Xue_Long.jpg In January we visited the Maritime Museum  in Vancouver, British Columbia which exhibits the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Arctic patrol vessel, the St. Roch , the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage (in 1940-42) after Roald Amundsen’s pioneering voyage (1903-06). The RCMP St. Roch in the Vancouver Harbour; Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Massive anti-regime protests in Iran and recent diplomacy concerning North Korea provide an opportunity to revisit the “axis of authoritarians” argument. Supporters  of this argument see the consolidation of an anti-Western axis in the deepening ties among the world’s top non-western autocrats, especially China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, especially since Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine.                The reality is more complex. On North Korea, there’s no doubt that

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/541f8bcb-118a-419e-869f-3273fcc9ce92 Power of Siberia 2: Significant Shift in Global Gas Markets or...