Mia Bennett

Mia Bennett is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive magazine. Her research and writing focus on how commodities cycles, globalization, and climate change are affecting trade networks, transportation, and natural resource development in the Arctic.She holds an MPhil in Polar Studies and is currently a PHD candidate in the UCLA Department of Geography.

Underwater Tunnels Revolutionize the Faroes

By Mia Bennett 2018-06-03 20:13:04

55 million years ago, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean opened up between Europe and Greenland, pushing the two landmasses apart. In the middle of this incipient churning ocean, massive volcanic eruptions spewed volcanic ash and bombs and layer upon layer of...

The Cost of the Bridge to Crimea

By Mia Bennett 2018-05-18 14:56:00

A little over four years after Crimea became separated from Ukraine and joined with Russia, a new $3.7 billion, 19-kilometer bridge from the mainland across the Kerch Strait has made the linkage of Russia’s newest territorial acquisition concrete. This week,...

Qingdao: China’s Iron Gateway to the Arctic

By Mia Bennett 2018-05-06 20:46:55

In January, China released its first Arctic Policy. In the U.S., fearful headlines greeted the document, from The Wall Street Journal’s suspicion of whether a “new Cold War” was on the way to Foreign Policy’s proclamation that “China’s ready to...

The Polar Code, One Year On

By Mia Bennett 2018-04-06 20:39:00

On January 1, 2017, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Polar Code came into effect. The functional, risk-based Code establishes mandatory regulations and standards for vessels operating in ice-covered waters to, in its own words, “Provide for safe ship operation and...

Emission Impossible

By Mia Bennett 2018-03-22 17:55:47

In a world of globalized trade, ships are often seen as a green alternative for moving goods from one place to another. As vessels glide across the oceans, they tend to remain “out of sight, out of mind” except when...

The Automation of Arctic oil

By Mia Bennett 2018-02-17 19:00:27

Big Oil is often regarded as an industry of yesteryear, unwilling and slow to change with the times. In some ways, corporations like Shell and BP might as well be painted as fossils digging up fossil fuels. But yesterday, while...

What Does China's Arctic Policy Actually Say?

By Mia Bennett 2018-01-28 16:20:09

China has been an active player in the Arctic for years now, sending an icebreaker towards the North Pole, opening a research station on Svalbard when the Concorde was still taking to the skies and investing in a major Russian...

Russia and China Claim Success at Yamal LNG

By Mia Bennett 2017-12-15 21:33:55

Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin descended on the frigid Yamal Peninsula to participate in the opening ceremony for a major Arctic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at the booming port town of Sabetta. Just a few years ago, hardly...

Will All Roads Lead to China?

By Mia Bennett 2017-12-03 19:51:00

Thousands of years ago soldiers, prisoners and commoners were busy building the Great Wall of China to keep out nomadic invaders. Today, Chinese engineers are constructing railroads, highways and ports that will connect China’s markets to the rest of the...

Alaska Native Corporation Pursues Offshore Oil

By Mia Bennett 2017-07-23 13:45:22

When Shell aborted its $7 billion Arctic drilling efforts in the Beaufort Sea in September 2015, environmentalists breathed a sigh of relief. The multinational corporation’s 28-vessel fleet, including its drillship and drill rig, quietly sailed south from Alaska towards warmer waters, avoiding...