Svalbard update

10 October 2008, 1300 EDT

Andrew Sullivan proves himself a shill for Svalbard. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Sullivan claims that the seed vault is a hedge against human extinction. But Svalbard watchers know the true role of the vault in Svalbard’s plans for Panzerbjørn world domination.

Why else would the Norwegians and the Russians engage in grim-faced saber-rattling over Svalbard?

While we’re on the subject, I should mention Zak’s concern about a connection between the Svalbard threat and Iceland’s financial collapse. Svalbard may, as he suggests, be attempting to secure control over the Arctic. This is a frightening thought. With the departure of US forces from the island nation, it is supremely vulnerable to attack. Yet The Monster remains, to our knowledge, unready for deployment in actual combat conditions.

So we believe it more likely that Svalbard may simply seek to exploit the current economic crisis if the opportunity arises… but it may be possible that its zombie sleeper agents–inadvertently revealed in Serious Sam 2 (search for “zombie”)–have been activated and are playing some role in the financial crisis.

Image source: Forsvaret / Norwegian M.O.D

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.