Frozen conflict? A special episode in the Arctic
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Norway’s north, a geopolitical quirk may yet transform into a geopolitical conflict. We visit Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago that contains a Russian company town complete with a bust of Lenin. Ahead of the high-stakes, high-north summit in Alaska, our correspondents lay out why—perhaps even more than the Baltic states—the Arctic might be the flashpoint for Russia’s next bout of expansionism.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Adam Grant from Worklife, a podcast from TED. |
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| 0:34.6 | Learn more at freshworks.com. The Economist. Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:53.9 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:55.6 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 1:00.7 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 1:08.3 | And today, a special episode on the events that are quietly shaping the top of the world. |
| 1:16.6 | When Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet tomorrow in Alaska, the principal talking point will of course be a ceasefire in Ukraine. |
| 1:20.6 | But our reporting suggests that more will be on the table, |
| 1:24.6 | like normalization of America's relations with Russia, or cooperation |
| 1:29.1 | in the Arctic over, say, energy. |
| 1:32.5 | Diplomatically, that's a bigger deal than you might imagine. |
| 1:37.0 | One way or another, the war will end, and as we've said before, the question in particular |
| 1:42.6 | for European leaders is where the next flashpoint |
| 1:45.5 | for Russian aggression will be. There's some chance the answer is off the European mainland, |
... |
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