During the Cold War, troops weren't deployed to protect against attack through the North Pole. This is because troop movement through the area is impracticable except by air. Instead, missile defense systems that could take out enemy missiles and aircraft were put in place. (As a side joke, this is also because Canada has the famous Mounties. No one attacks the Mounties!) At the time, Russia and the US were the only super powers in the world and neither of them thought it was cost effective nor worth it to place armies in the Arctic polar region. Even with the fear of global thermal nuclear war and mutual assured destruction (MAD) predictions! Antarctica is even farther away from suitable land that the cost to deploy and maintain armies there is even worse than that of the Arctic polar region. I'm just saying, if super powers don't see a reason to consider troop deployment into a polar region with the threat of annihilation of the human species as we know it, why would smaller countries?
During the Cold War, troops weren't deployed to protect against attack through the North Pole. This is because troop movement through the area is impracticable except by air. Instead, missile defense systems that could take out enemy missiles and aircraft were put in place. (As a side joke, this is also because Canada has the famous Mounties. No one attacks the Mounties!) At the time, Russia and the US were the only super powers in the world and neither of them thought it was cost effective nor worth it to place armies in the Arctic polar region. Even with the fear of global thermal nuclear war and mutual assured destruction (MAD) predictions! Antarctica is even farther away from suitable land that the cost to deploy and maintain armies there is even worse than that of the Arctic polar region. I'm just saying, if super powers don't see a reason to consider troop deployment into a polar region with the threat of annihilation of the human species as we know it, why would smaller countries?
