The Arctic
The Arctic is experiencing dramatic climate changes that also make the region available for greater resource exploitation and transport activity. The Arctic is indeed becoming increasing important in international politics.
The term ‘the Artic’ refers to the sea and land areas around the North Pole. The eight countries that border on the Arctic – Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the USA - are all permanent members of the Arctic Council. This area has traditionally been characterized by low tension as well as a low degree of economic exploitation of its natural resources. However, this is now changing, due not least to the effects of climate change.
Questions related to the use of natural resources in the Far North, oil/gas and fish in particular, are central to NUPI’s Arctic research, as are issues of security policy. For Norway, relations to Russia are a major factor in the Far North. Also important is the growing interest shown by other parts of the world in the Artic and its natural resources. A central thematic area for Arctic research at NUPI concerns the effects of climate change, which are already influencing and altering conditions in the region – as seen in the case of the new possibilities for traffic via the Northern Sea Route to Asia.
Sources: Store Norske Leksikon and NUPI.
News about The Arctic
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NUPI@MSC: How do we meet the challenges in a changing Arctic?
13 Feb 2020Read joint NUPI-Wilson Center report on Arctic security discussed at MSC 2020.
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The Russia Conference: Cold Peace in the Arctic?
14 Sep 2018On September 14, NUPI’s Russia Conference took place in Oslo. Couldn’t be there? Watch the entire event, including Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide's key note speech, on YouTube.
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China meets the Nordics at NUPI
6 Sep 2017How does the world appear seen from China and the Nordics?
Publications about The Arctic
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Publication
: Report
A Governance and Risk Inventory for a Changing Arctic
Many government officials, military leaders, and political observers have proclaimed the rise of a new, post-Cold War global great power competition between the United States, Russia, and China with myriad implications. Using this new reality as the backdrop for the Arctic Security Roundtable at the... -
Publication
: Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Japan and Arctic Security
This chapter focuses on what Arctic security means to Japan and how Japan handles the security dimension in its three-spoke approach to the Arctic, involving economic, political, and scientific factors. The chapter begins by addressing the changing understandings of what Arctic security entails. What... -
Publication
: Academic monograph
Governing complexity in the Arctic region
This book argues that confining our understandings of Arctic governance to Arctic states and a focus on the Arctic Council as the primary site of circumpolar governance provides an incomplete picture. Instead, the authors embrace the complexity of governance in the Arctic by systematically analyzing...
Research projects about The Arctic
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Research project
Flanks: Security Challenges in Northern and Southern Europe (FLANKS)
2020 - 2021 (Ongoing)The aim of this project is to develop enhanced knowledge of Russia's behaviour in the Kola Peninsula and the Arctic region, as well as in the Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea region – and to compare...
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Photograph: Allan Hopkins/Creative Commons/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Research project
The Lorax Project: Understanding Ecosystemic Politics (LORAX)
2019 - 2023 (Ongoing)Do regional politics around border-crossing ecosystems share important resemblances and differ in significant ways from global politics?
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Photo: Nonac_Digi/Creative Commons/CC BY NC-SA 2.0
Research project
The International Panel on Arctic Environmental Responsibility
2018 - 2022 (Ongoing)The International Panel on Arctic Environmental Responsibility is an independent and free-standing body tasked with assessing the environmental status of oil, gas, and mining companies in the Arctic.