A Study on the Disputes over Arctic Shipping Routes under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The geopolitical game between the United States and Russia in the Arctic ship-ping routes has led to a security crisis in the region, and the 2022 Ukraine crisis has further exacerbated the risk of conflict there. The United Nations Conven-tion on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) system has issues such as different inter-pretations and applications regarding the innocent passage of warships in terri-torial seas, the legal status of Arctic shipping routes, and navigation rights. In the geopolitical game in the European Arctic, major powers may exploit these international law rules to take military actions and achieve political goals, in-creasing the risk of armed conflicts. However, the existing regional coopera-tion system is insufficient to mitigate such security risks. In addition, the Ukraine crisis has caused geopolitics to dominate regional international rela-tions, which not only increases security risks but also raises the attention of relevant coun-tries to international law. In the future, international laws such as UNCLOS may become important tools for maintaining peace and stability in the Arctic ship-ping routes.