As Arctic sea ice retreats, the region shifts from wilderness to geopolitical flashpoint. This second half of a DW two-part report picks up with the great powers circling: Russia, the US, China, and Canada eyeing new shipping lanes, mineral deposits, and tourism as the ice disappears faster than anywhere else on Earth. The film crew boards a Norwegian frigate off Spitsbergen to watch NATO track rising Russian activity in the High North, including surveillance flights and talk of reviving submarine patrols mothballed since the Cold War. Norway's intelligence service lays out what it has observed of Moscow's military buildup nearby. Interspersed with the security reporting are visits with Arctic residents in Norway, Greenland, and Russia's north, people who have adapted for generations to the cold and now watch their environment and their strategic value change at once. The film treats the melting ice as both an environmental fact and a trigger for renewed great-power competition at the top of the world.