Svalbard Islands: From Moby-Dick to Resource Exploitation. The Legal Struggle for Sovereignty and Strategic Position
The Svalbard Islands lie in a critical maritime corridor between the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, making it strategically significant for both Europe and global powers. Historically shaped by whaling, hunting, and trapping, Svalbard later became a center for coal mining, science, and tourism. Today, it remains a hybrid space of cooperation and geopolitical tension, increasingly influenced by Russia, Norway, and broader Arctic competition involving global actors such as China.