Sea Change: The New Great Game in the Arctic Circle

by Rana Foroohar

In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires battled for primacy in Central Asia, in a multi-decade struggle that became known as 'The Great Game'. The territorial lines drawn across Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and India over this time defined the geopolitics and economics of the next century. Today, there is a new Great Game being played not in Central Asia, or even in modern hot zones like Ukraine, Gaza, or the South China Seas, but rather in the frigid waters of the Arctic. Dominance in this region will be crucial to control of the entire Western hemisphere.
America, which has always been an Arctic nation, but only peripherally so, must now face the fact that Russia and China together are challenging its territorial primacy in the Western Hemisphere. Can America wrest back enough maritime capacity and control to counter Beijing? What will happen if it can't? These are two of the many crucial questions Sea Change strives to answer.

332 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication October 8, 2026

About the author

Rana Foroohar is the author of Don’t Be Evil, which won a Porchlight Business Book Award, and Makers and Takers. Currently the global business columnist and associate editor for the Financial Times and the global economic analyst for CNN, she has served as the assistant managing editor and economic columnist at Time and an economic and foreign affairs editor and foreign correspondent at Newsweek. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the board of the Open Markets Institute.