The Bering Strait Crossing: Frontier Between East and West

The Bering Strait Crossing is an epic story that reveals the Intercontinental Divide and its profound global significance. The 53-mile wide strait, named after the Danish explorer Vitus Bering (1681-1741), separates four continents across the Europe-Asia landmass and the Americas, making it the world's geographical crossroads. Despite the extremes of climate, isolation, and geopolitical tension, the author uncovers the potential for the Bering Strait to become a global shipping nexus, connecting Europe, North America, and Asia through the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route.

The ancient waterway, when the fog clears over the Diomede Islands, presents one of the world's most stunning vistas. Yet, for centuries, the strait has remained undefeated in terms of a terrestrial link between the USA and Russia. In the modern era, various schemes, such as rail, ferry, and tunnel, have been proposed to cross the strait, and a scheduled air service has been in place since the end of the Cold War.

The author, James A. Oliver, blends geography, exploration, and international relations to recount a story that has been lost to the archives but belongs to the future as much as to the past. The Bering Strait Crossing is an adventure story that is still unfolding, with new challenges on the horizon.

The narrative features a cast of extraordinary protagonists, including Pliny, Mercator, Dezhnev, Vitus Bering, Shelikhov, Captain Cook, William Gilpin, Roald Amundsen, and George Koumal, whose vision for a mighty project to cross the strait is worthy of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaire.

In the early 21st century, the self-induced amnesia of the long Cold War years is yielding to a fresh outlook between East and West across the strait. In a world thirsty for energy resources and trade, the prospect for US-Russian cooperation across the northern Pacific Rim is tantalising in its multiplicity and vastness, with profound implications for the global economy.

As Dr Yutaka Mochida aptly states, "The Bering Strait crossing has a deep, worldwide significance." This epic story serves as a reminder of the enduring power of human exploration and the potential for international cooperation to shape the future of global connectivity and prosperity.

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