Approaching the North: Norwegian and Russian foreign policy discourses on the European Arctic

Jensen, Leif Christian; Skedsmo, Pål Wilter

doi:10.3402/polar.v29i3.6073

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…In practice, many continue to be ignored, though the stakes involved in the symbolic politics of Arctic territory have grown as resource extraction has become a growing possibility. Though all Arctic states continue to emphasise the absence of conventional military threats in the region and reaffirm their commitments to peaceful resolution of Arctic disputes, many have also securitised Arctic energy, with Canada, Norway, and Russia constructing Arctic resources as central to their national economic security interests (Beauchamp and Huebert 2008; Jensen and Skedsmo 2010; Jensen 2012). Thus, while there is little evidence the warming environment will directly result in interstate violence, the opening of the Arctic has led to a renewed emphasis on military activity, and the prospect of resource wealth has raised the stakes for states asserting and defending their Arctic sovereignty claims.…”

Section: Changing Arctic Environmental Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Securing sustainability: the case for critical environmental security in the Arctic

Greaves¹

2016

Polar Record

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The politics, economies, and ecology of the Arctic region are experiencing fundamental transformation driven largely by human-caused environmental change. Drawing on the work of Robert Cox, this article presents a critical account of environmental security that allows security issues in the Arctic to be reconceptualised. It outlines the environmental changes transforming the Arctic, and theorises the Arctic as a regional environmental security complex in which conditions of security for state and non-state referent objects are predicated on a particular ecological context. It then surveys state- and human security issues in the Arctic, and argues that environmental change has destabilised the ecological base on which the contemporary Arctic as a cooperative region supportive of human activity has been built. The article concludes by outlining alternative ways of conceiving of Arctic security that are more compatible with maintaining the region's ecological base, and suggests that dominant approaches to Arctic security are pathological because they remain premised on the control, extraction and consumption of hydrocarbon resources. It argues that, in the context of the geological Anthropocene, security cannot be sustainable if it fails to address the relationship between human wellbeing and human-caused environmental change, or informs practices that further contribute to environmental change.

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Section: Changing Arctic Environmental Securitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Securing sustainability: the case for critical environmental security in the Arctic

Greaves¹

2016

Polar Record

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“…Cf. Jensen and Skedsmo (2010) and Jensen and Hønneland (2011). 9.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Arctic: A new region of conflict? The case of oil and gas

Keil¹

2013

Cooperation and Conflict

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Neorealist and neoliberal institutionalist explanations for the state and future of the Arctic region dominate the Arctic debate in international relations. While both schools focus on different aspects concerning the current and future state of Arctic affairs -neorealism evokes a confrontational rush for the Arctic's resources, whereas neoliberal institutionalism propagates the necessary reform of the institutional system governing Arctic issues -both share the underlying assumption of significant and rising stakes towards Arctic commodities. However, this article argues that this debate has hitherto failed to substantiate the actual stakes of the main actors involved. Consequently, many studies make grandiloquent statements about prospects of cooperation and conflict and the appropriate institutional framework for the Arctic region, based on only limited empirical support. This article aims to fill this gap by analysing the Arctic oil and gas interests of the five Arctic littoral states (Russia, USA, Canada, Norway and Denmark/Greenland). The analysis shows greatly different levels of interests towards the High North among the Arctic states. The findings make it possible to make more credible statements about the likelihood of confrontation over Arctic resources and necessary institutional adjustments. The evidence shows that the often-evoked issue of geopolitical rush for Arctic resources is unlikely to eventuate. Nonetheless, there remain institutional challenges for the protection of the fragile Arctic ecosystem.

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“…In this case, discourses and performative statements known as speech acts (Chilton and Schäffner 2002, p. 9) are drawn from policy documents and statements by Russian political actors, Russian analysts, and Russian media. This approach has already been applied to Russian Arctic policy (Jensen and Skedsmo 2010), climate change, and environmental security (Trombetta 2008), and has great relevance to the consideration of energy security, an area in which actors' perceptions of their own security depends upon the perceived intentions of other relevant actors. This is especially the case in a supplier-consumer relationship such as that between Russia and the EU.…”

Section: Theoretical and Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Russian approaches to energy security and climate change: Russian gas exports to the EU

Sharples

2013

Environmental Politics

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The proposition that EU climate policy represents a threat to Russia's gas exports to the EU, and therefore to Russia's energy security, is critically examined. It is concluded that whilst the greater significance of climatechange action for Russian energy security currently lies not in Russia's own emissions reduction commitments but in those of the EU, an even greater threat to Russia's energy security is posed by the development of the EU internal gas market and challenges to Russia's participation in that market. However, the coming decades could see Russia's energy security increasingly influenced by climate-change action policies undertaken by current importers of Russian gas such as the EU, and potential importers such as China and India. The challenge for Russia will be to adapt to developments in energy security and climate-change action at the European and global levels.Keywords: Russia; EU; energy security; climate change Introduction Russia is a major global actor in the sphere of energy, the largest exporter of natural gas in the world, with the world's largest gas reserves (BP 2011a, pp. 20-29), whose own energy security depends to significant degree on security of exports. With its geographical proximity to the EU and its share in EU-27 gas imports, Russia is also an important actor in European regional energy security. Although much has been written about energy security in EU-Russia energy relations, European literature on the subject (Van der Meulen 2009, Paillard 2010) is often (understandably) Eurocentric and therefore consumer orientated. Russian perspectives on energy security remain under-researched. This discussion is part of a broader research project that seeks to engage more strongly with Russian approaches to energy security (Sharples, in press).Given their differing approaches to both energy security and climate change, and the importance of their energy supplier-consumer relationship, an examination of

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Approaching the North: Norwegian and Russian foreign policy discourses on the European Arctic

Cited by 13 publications

References 11 publications

Securing sustainability: the case for critical environmental security in the Arctic

Securing sustainability: the case for critical environmental security in the Arctic

The Arctic: A new region of conflict? The case of oil and gas

Russian approaches to energy security and climate change: Russian gas exports to the EU

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