This seminal book results from a NATO Advanced Research Workshop at the University of Cambridge with Russian co-directorship, enabling the first formal dialogue between NATO and Russia about security issues in the Arctic Ocean. Involving interdisciplinary participation with experts from 17 nations, including all of the Arctic states, this workshop itself reflects progress in Arctic cooperation and collaboration. Interests now are awakening globally to take advantage of extensive energy, shipping, fishing and tourism opportunities in the Arctic Ocean as it is being transformed from a permanent sea-ice cap to a seasonally ice-free sea. This environmental state-change is introducing inherent risks of political, economic and cultural instabilities that are centralized among the Arctic states and indigenous peoples with repercussions globally. Responding with urgency, environmental security is presented as an "integrated approach for assessing and responding to the risks as well as the opportunities generated by an environmental state-change." In this book – diverse perspectives on environmental security in the Arctic Ocean are shared in chapters from high-level diplomats, parliamentarians and government officials of Arctic and non-Arctic states; leaders of Arctic indigenous peoples organizations; international law advisors from Arctic states as well as the United Nations; directors of inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations; managers of multi-national corporations; political scientists, historians and economists; along with Earth system scientists and oceanographers. Building on the “common arctic issues” of “sustainable development and environmental protection” established by the Arctic Council – environmental security offers an holistic approach to assess opportunities and risks as well as develop infrastructure responses with law of the sea as the key “international legal framework” to “promote the peaceful uses” of the Arctic Ocean. With vision for future generations, environmental security is a path to balance national interests and common interests in the Arctic Ocean for the lasting benefit of all.

Online publication: https://pub.norden.org/temanord2020-506/ Abstract [en] The Arctic is undergoing rapid climate change, and the shrinking sea ice opens up possibilities of exploring more of the Arctic Ocean for economic development, including new sea routes. Maritime activity and particularly commercial shipping, including cruise ship tourism, cargo transportation and fishing vessels, is projected to increase substantially. There are evident risks to human safety and environmental security related to an increase of shipping in the Arctic. This report focues on how the Nordic countries can together work towards increase environmental security in Arctic waters and reduce risks associated with increased shipping activity in the region.

This book assesses the construction of security in the context of climate change, with a focus on the Arctic region. It examines and discusses changes in the security premises of the Arctic states, from traditional security to environmental and human security. In particular, the book explores how climate change impacts security discourses and premises as well as theoretically discussing the possibility for another change, from circumpolar stability into peaceful change. Chapters cover topics such as the ethics of climate change in the arctic, China’s emerging power and influence on arctic climate security, the discursive transformation of the definition of security and the intersection between urban, climate and Arctic studies. The book concludes with the question of whether a paradigm shift in our understanding of traditional security is possible, and whether it is already occurring in the Arctic.

The concept of environmental security, drawing on the widely understood notion of international strategic interdependence (in facing, for example, threats of nuclear war or economic collapse) is gaining currency as a way of thinking about international environmental management. In 1989, the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Marine Policy Center of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution instituted a joint project to examine environmental security as it applies to the world's oceans. The Oceans and Environmental Security is a unified expression of their findings. The oceans, as global commons, are of central importance to issues of international environmental security. Critical problems are those that are likely to destabilize normal relations between nations and provoke international countermeasures. As such, the book focuses on seven specific concerns: land-based marine pollution North Pacific fisheries depletion hazardous materials transport nuclear contamination the Arctic Ocean the Southern Ocean and Antarctica the Law of the Sea

The Arctic-Barents Region is facing numerous pressures from a variety of sources, including the effect of environmental changes and extractive industrial developments. The threats arising out of these pressures result in human security challenges. This book analyses the formation, and promotion, of societal security within the context of the Arctic-Barents Region. It applies the human security framework, which has increasingly gained currency at the UN level since 1994 (UNDP), as a tool to provide answers to many questions that face the Barents population today. The study explores human security dimensions such as environmental security, economic security, health, food, water, energy, communities, political security and digital security in order to assess the current challenges that the Barents population experiences today or may encounter in the future. In doing so, the book develops a comprehensive analysis of vulnerabilities, challenges and needs in the Barents Region and provides recommendations for new strategies to tackle insecurity and improve the wellbeing of both indigenous and local communities. This book will be a valuable tool for academics, policy-makers and students interested in environmental and human security, sustainable development, environmental studies and the Arctic and Barents Region in particular.

This is the first comprehensive exploration of why human security is relevant to the Arctic and what achieving it can mean, covering the areas of health of the environment, identity of peoples, supply of traditional foods, community health, economic opportunities, and political stability. The traditional definition of security has already been actively employed in the Arctic region for decades, particularly in relation to natural resource sovereignty issues, but how and why should the human aspect be introduced? What can this region teach us about human security in the wider world? The book reviews the potential threats to security, putting them in an analytical framework and indicating a clear path for solutions.Contributions come from natural, social and humanities scientists, hailing from Canada, Russia, Finland and Norway. Environmental Change and Human Security in the Arctic is an essential resource for policy-makers, community groups, researchers and students working in the field of human security, particularly for those in the Arctic regions.

This book examines Arctic defense policy and military security from the perspective of all eight Arctic states. In light of climate change and melting ice in the Arctic Ocean, Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), Norway and the United States, as well as Iceland, Sweden and Finland, are grappling with an emerging Arctic security paradigm. This volume brings together the world's most seasoned Arctic political-military experts from Europe and North America to analyze how Arctic nations are adapting their security postures to accommodate increased shipping, expanding naval presence, and energy and mineral development in the polar region. The book analyzes the ascent of Russia as the first 'Arctic superpower', the growing importance of polar security for NATO and the Nordic states, and the increasing role of Canada and the United States in the region.