Just last week we mentioned here that the Australian military released a report saying (in part) that fights over energy reserves in the Arctic may destabilize international relations as a race starts for who gets the oil rights. In fact, the handsome author of that post had this to say about the potential Arctic entanglements:

As for the energy reserves in the Arctic, that does seem like a very real threat. I can’t wait (well, I probably can) until the U.S. and Russia start bickering over who gets the oil up there.

And, oh look, here’s the first sentence and a half of an article by Reuters yesterday, because obviously:

President George W. Bush on Monday issued a directive spelling out the U.S. interest in the vast oil and natural gas resources held in the Arctic. The directive contradicts Russia’s claim to a bigger chunk of the Arctic and its energy supplies…

So, within a week of Australia’s report, we have issues. Now, at this point, no one’s actually waving flags or threatening to pick up guns. But with an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil, who knows? Russia, at the moment, is conducting a survey to figure out its borders, and thus its rights to energy that is within its continental shelf. And, also,

In addition to Russia and the United States, the other countries that claim territory in the Arctic are Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

So, this could come to a head at some point in the near future. Unless, of course, we figure out ways not to need that much oil. takepart to see what the the new administration is planning to do to ease our dependence on such things.