Barentsburg is part of the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard -- a geopolitical oddity created by a 1920 treaty that gave Norway sovereignty over the territory but granted access to many countries, including Russia, China and the U.

Award-winning journalist Kenneth R. Rosen spoke with Newsweek about his new book, Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic, and about Greenland's growing importance in global geopolitics.