A new strategy for crossing river in inhospitable territory (9)
I believe the answer is:
antarctic
'inhospitable territory' is the definition.
(I know this)
'a new strategy for crossing river' is the wordplay.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'strategy' becomes 'tactic' (I've seen this in another clue).
'for crossing' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters go around or cross others).
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation for river).
'tactic' going around 'r' is 'tarctic'.
'a'+'n'+'tarctic'='ANTARCTIC'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for antarctic that I've seen before include "Where to pick up a penguin?" , "Relating to the southern polar area" , "Of far southern regions" , "Area around the South Pole" , "near the south pole" .)