The steady retreat of Arctic ice over the past decade is no less than a geopolitical upheaval in the making. Never before did the intricacies of the border separating the eight Arctic states really matter, because the estimated 90 billion barrels of oil at stake were rendered irretrievable by thick, glacial ice. Rising global temperatures have changed all that, and a traversable Arctic has already departed the realm of theoretical possibility to become undisputed fact. This has important geopolitical consequences for littoral states and beyond, not just in terms of unlocking the resource potential in the Arctic seabed, but also for the new avenues of international trade via the Northwest Passage.