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Human security, the Arctic Council and climate change: competition or co-existence?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2013

Heather N. Nicol  and
Lassi Heininen
Heather N. Nicol
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario K91 7B8, Canada (heathernicol@trentu.ca)
Lassi Heininen
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, P.O. Box 122, FIN-96101, Rovaniemi, Finland
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Abstract

We argue that the current understanding of the Arctic as a region fraught by increasing tension and competition under conditions of climate change is an incomplete story. It ignores many salient developments in furthering co-operation and human security agendas, and marginalises some of the more complex and interesting developments within the region. Such changes in ‘natural states’ do not, in and of themselves, create geopolitical and political instability. Rather, it is the way in which change is understood as a problem for institutional and international organs that creates conditions for co-operation or competition. In the Arctic today, the balance is tipped in favour of co-operation, but the situation is complex and many actors have vested interests.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 80 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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