Defining Environmental Change and Security in the Arctic

Climate change is increasingly presented as key policy challenge, raising complex economic, social and ecological questions. Of high relevance are the effects of climate change in the Circumpolar North, where rapidly receding summer sea-ice coverage has led to a reemergence of interests in both the region's environmental and geopolitical circumstances. While few dispute the hazards of arctic warming, environmental change may in fact bring new opportunities regarding access to the region's plentiful energy resources and sea routes.

Therefore, several arctic states aim to extend their respective territorial sovereignty. Likewise, energy companies hitherto focused on resource extraction in more southerly parts press towards developing oil and gas fields based on advanced technologies and rising global energy demand. Such activities, however, imply growing pressures not only for the exceptionally vulnerable environment but also for society, turning governance in the Far North into a critical issue of unfolding geopolitics and sustainability imperatives.

The aim of this paper is to address multi-level governance challenges in the region from a multidimensional security perspective. Specifically, we seek to determine options for and limits to transboundary co-operation at the interface of national, environmental, and human security. To this end, the relationship and interaction between state and non-state actors are analyzed, with special emphasis on four different but interrelated groups of stakeholders: arctic states; industry; local and indigenous populations; as well as non-arctic states. It will be argued that arctic changes present a powerful lure that might enhance tendencies of conflict and cooperation, with serious implications for the security agendas of all actors involved.