Securitization of the Arctic (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
This chapter examines an emerging regional security system in the Arctic. There was a significant shift in the Arctic powers' threat perceptions and security policies in the High North. In contrast with the Cold War era when the Arctic was a zone for the global confrontation between the USSR and the U.S./ NATO, now this region is seen by international players as a platform for international cooperation. The Arctic countries now believe that there are no serious hard security threats to them and that the soft security agenda is much more important. The military power now has new functions, such as ascertaining coastal states' sovereignty over their exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in the region; protecting the Arctic countries' economic interests in the North, and performing some symbolic functions. The Arctic states believe that the regional cooperative agenda could include climate change mitigation, environmental protection, maritime safety, Arctic research, indigenous peoples, cross-and trans-border cooperative projects, culture, etc.
The Arctic security region: misconceptions and contradictions
Polar Geography
The security interests of Arctic states are increasingly described as intertwined. The Arctic is seen either as a region where great power rivalries or resource wars are likely, or as a part of the world defined by cooperative traits and shared security interests. These depictions often implicitly lean on notions of a security region and regionalism, albeit without utilizing such frameworks to unpack security interactions in the Arctic. An increasing number of Arctic-focused scholars refer to the Arctic as a region in terms of security interests, but is this really the case if we make use of the different ways a security region has been outlined as an analytical tool? Leaning on different levels of analysis, this article questions several assumptions underpinning recent work on military security in the Arctic, advancing our understanding of security dynamics in the north and adding to our knowledge of security regions as a concept within international studies. It is argued that descriptions of the Arctic as a new security region are based on mixing and equating two distinct features of the region: the changing climate and related increases in economic ventures; and Russia's military build-up and regional hegemony.
THE STRATEGIC DIMENSION OF CHANGES IN THE ARCTIC SECURITY ENVIRONMENT
Bezpieczeństwo Narodowe 2023/42, 2023
Technological progress and global warming, including rising temperatures, open new transit routes in the Arctic. The availability of natural resources in the region, including oil and gas, uranium and rare earth elements, is increasing. The war caused by Russia in Ukraine also has consequences for the relations between the states in the Arctic region. The aim of the article is to show that the Arctic region is not immune to changes in global security environment. These changes not only result in a redefinition of the international balance of power. Some countries located beyond the Arctic, with supra-regional aspirations, open to new strategic and economic goals in this region. Consequently, Arctic management system is changing and diversifying. It is becoming necessary to develop a new model for managing this region, considering changes in the security environment and much wider spectrum of international actors than ever before. Link: https://www.bezpieczenstwo-narodowe.pl/pdf-170904-100499?filename=The%20strategic%20dimension.pdf
International Journal of Politic and Security, 2021
Arctic is a region that is emphasized within the framework of combating climate change. Although there are steps of cooperation in this regard, the mentioned steps fall behind the discussions on the economic and commercial potential. Structures such as the Arctic Council want to shape a social and environmental cooperation process in the region. However, the ongoing network of conflictual relations between the US and Russia directly affects the discussions, efforts and actors regarding the Arctic. Although it can be seen that a balance of power has been formed on a neorealist basis, the integration of new actors such as China into the Arctic can eliminate the balance. In this framework, the military, political and economic security sectors described by Buzan may turn into the most important elements that shape the network of relations in the Arctic in the medium term. Leaving the social and environmental security sectors, which should be the main securitization elements, to the back...
Evolving Arctic Security Architecture Towards a Cooperative One
International Journal of Politics and Security, 2021
Ever since it emerged as another remote Cold War battlefield, the discourse regarding Arctic security has gone through a considerable change in both scope and depth. While this inhospitable environment was once only assessed as a rather insignificant element of the national security and sovereignty calculations of the two blocs throughout the Cold War era, such traditional perception of state-level relations has been shifting to a different plane in recent decades. This article examines the nature of this transforming security architecture of the Arctic from a competitive to a cooperative one in the last three decades. It goes on to evaluate the ‘broad security perception’ from the lens of three significant initiatives: the Murmansk Speech, the intended mandate of the Arctic Council, and economic development priorities spelled out by all Arctic states in their national strategies pertaining to the Arctic. The study, thus, concludes that unlike classical security formulations of the Cold War years, an enhanced and all-inclusive cooperative security concept will eventually pave the way for a solid and sustainable region-wide regime as societal, environmental, human, and economic security concerns have been escalating to the top of the priority list in the region alongside with national security perceptions of states
Introduction: Arctic International Relations in a Widened Security Perspective
Politik, 2017
This special issue of Politik aims to widen the debate on Arctic security relations through a more comprehensive dialogue inclusive of the many different types of security, their interactions, and their challenges by using the theoretical approach of the Copenhagen School. A better understanding of security dynamics in the circumpolar North today demands a critical analysis of those changes through a multidisciplinary and multi-modal lens. Each chapter in this special issue provides one layer of that multimodal lens of Arctic security that, together, weave a complex web of change. This special issue therefore continues to move the discourse of polar security beyond – but not excluding – the conventional debates of military capabilities and state sovereignty towards a more comprehensive definition of security, including its interacting environmental, economic, political, health and cultural dimensions.
Arctic Security: A Global Challenge
VII Lisbon International Arctic Conference and Workshop, 2019
Arctic security is a main security challenge – a global one, not only a regional one – not only for the Arctic countries, but for the whole international community, first of all the European. With Russia and China expanding their role in the area, and the difficulty of finding an undisputed governance on maritime routes and economic exploitation of resources, there is the risk of militarization of the Arctic. After briefly summarizing current and future challenges in the Arctic, this paper analyzes the limits due to a deficit of suitable instruments to maintain security in the region, especially in relation to the role of international intergovernmental organizations, and suggests some remedies to overcome these deficiencies.
Redefining Arctic security: Military, environmental, human or societal? Cooperation or conflict?
2019
And yet, in the past two decades, conceptions about Arctic security have shifted. What attracts many of us in the Thematic Network to the study of the Arctic region is its unique model of defining and seeking security. Famously, while traditional security issues are alive and well, the region has uniquely accepted and embraced discourses on environmental and human security issues including environmental protection, Indigenous self-determination, safety, interregional cooperation, development, and the rule of law.