The Bering Strait Crossing is the epic story of the Intercontinental Divide. The ancient waterway - when the fog clears over the Diomede Islands - is among the world's most stunning vistas. This is where the 53-mile wide strait, named for Danish explorer Vitus Bering (1681-1741), separates four continents across the Europe-Asia landmass and the Americas. Isolation, extremes of climate, and geopolitical tensions have interfaced to create the perception of a frozen limbo at the edge of the world. Yet the Bering Strait is the world's geographical crossroads - linking East with West - for nowhere else on the globe is it possible to cross the Pacific overland, between Asia and the Americas. In the modern era, several schemes have been proposed - rail, ferry, tunnel - by which to cross the strait. Since the end of the Cold War, a scheduled air service has been in place. The strait remains undefeated in terms of a terrestrial link between the USA and Russia - so far. The author uncovers a world-shaping revelation: that the Bering Strait has the potential to become a global shipping nexus via the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route between Europe, North America, and Asia. 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. James A. Oliver blends geography, exploration and international relations to recount a story that has, incredibly, been lost to the archives - but which belongs to the future as much as to the past. The Bering Strait Crossing is an adventure story that is still unfolding, and which, in the 21st century, stands as a frontier with new challenges on the horizon . . .From East and West, enter a cast of extraordinary protagonists: Pliny, Mercator, Dezhnev, Vitus Bering, Shelikhov, Captain Cook, William Gilpin, Roald Amundsen, and - since the end of the Cold War - George Koumal, whose vision for a mighty project to cross the strait is worthy of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaire. . . "The Bering Strait crossing has a deep, worldwide significance." - Dr Yutaka Mochida
James A. Oliver is an international writer, editor, and occasional journalist. He is also the author of "A Footprint in the Sand", an epic political comedy inspired by a special assignment at the end of the Cold War, and "The Anarchist's Arms" - a stage play set in near-future London.
In 2006, The Bering Strait Crossing: A 21st Century Frontier was published worldwide. In 2007, he was invited to Moscow for a symposium on the subject at The Russian Academy of Sciences.
From 2007-2009, he lived and worked in Paris on the Ile Saint Louis, where he also developed the script for "The Pamphleteers" (2010), which investigates the birth of journalism with profiles of such proto-journalists as Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, Daniel Defoe - and Tom Paine in Paris.
"Strait of Gibraltar: antiquity to the 21st century" (work-in-progress) is a geographical investigation that forms the second part of the trilogy Where Continents Meet.
James Oliver is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
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