Parting the Barents Sea

Russia made everyone nervous by planting that flag on the seabed at the North Pole. But the first big Arctic sovereignty dispute may be on the verge of a peaceful resolution. When Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visits Oslo on April 26 and 27, he and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will try to end a decades-old conflict over dividing the Barents Sea into clear Russian and Norwegian economic zones. Billions of dollars' worth of oil, gas and fish resources are in the balance. A friendly resolution would bode well for the coming sovereignty scramble as the melting of the Arctic ice opens a large new patch of the world for economic activity.