Polar Geopolitics

“Greenland is the most dynamic piece in the new Arctic security jigsaw puzzle”, according to a new book that applies the international relations theory of securitization to analyze the security and geopolitics of Greenland and the Arctic. Marc Jacobsen, Ole Wæver and Ulrik Pram Gad, co-editors and authors of Greenland in Arctic Security: (De)securitization Dynamics under Climatic Thaw and Geopolitical Freeze, join the podcast to discuss the configuration of Arctic security and explain how relations between Nuuk, Copenhagen and Washington, as well as issues such as Greenlandic national identity, independence and sovereignty, are strongly influencing the future of the region. Marc Jacobsen is an Assistant Professor at the Royal Danish Defence College; Ole Wæver is a Professor at the University of Copenhagen; and Ulrik Pram Gad is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Greenland in Arctic Security is available from the University of Michigan Press: https://press.umich.edu/Books/G/

In this episode of the Polar Geopolitics podcast, recorded live at the 2024 Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Norway, host Eric Paglia interviews Andreas Østhagen of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and Kelsey Frazier from the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. The discussion ranges from global trends affecting the geopolitical position of the Arctic and local security issues specific to Alaska and the Barents Sea region, to the real and anticipated effects of climate change, the challenge of changing sea ice conditions and other maritime issues such as domain awareness, seabed claims and seabed mining, and the pressing need for investments in assets like port infrastructure and polar security cutters.

To analyze the transformed security environment in Northern Europe since the NATO accession of Sweden and Finland, this episode features an interview with Minna Ålander, research fellow at the Finish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki. The in-depth discussion, at time when the Nordic countries have been engaged with their NATO partners in the major Nordic Response 2024 military exercise, covers the interconnections between the Arctic and Baltic regions from a security standpoint, Nordic and US defense cooperation, the integration of Finland and Sweden into the NATO command structure, Finnish relations with China, and the hybrid warfare tactics that have been employed in the Baltic Sea and Finland’s border with Russia.  

Dr. Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, joins the podcast to discuss Antarctica and the short- and long-term impacts of climate change and the emerging green transition on the geopolitics of the polar regions. Dr. Bremmer, who recently returned from a trip to Antarctica, also explains how the six-decade success story of the Antarctic Treaty System could provide a precedent for the global governance of outer space in the years ahead.  

Anu Fredrikson, Executive Director of Arctic Frontiers and former director of the Arctic Economic Council, joins the podcast to discuss sustainable development, economic opportunities and the Green Transition that is taking place in the Arctic alongside structural changes in the regional security environment. With the annual Arctic Frontiers conference coming up in the end of January, Anu Fredrikson also takes up some of the Big Picture themes that will animate discussions in Tromsø, such as Global Actions/Arctic Reactions, Arctic Security-Local Resilience, Navigating Arctic Realities, and Rethinking Arctic Development.

The deployment of subsea data cables across different marine areas of the circumpolar North has become a significant development in discussions of Arctic geopolitics. Meanwhile security concerns over subsea infrastructure have become heightened by recent incidents involving the disruption and destruction of energy pipelines and telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea. Nima Khorrami, a research associate at the Arctic Institute, joins the podcast to explain why data cables are crucial for the economic development of the Arctic, and how the expansion of subsea infrastructure entails the need for an enhanced security presence in the region, perhaps on the part of NATO. The episode also includes a discussion on the recent announcement that Dubai-based DP World will partner with Russia in developing the Northern Sea Route, and whether this signals a new interest in the Arctic among middle eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates.

The security situation in the Arctic has changed significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, although the military buildup in the region began well before 2022. Katarzyna Zysk, professor of International Relations and Contemporary History at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, joins the podcast to discuss Russia’s military posture in the Arctic, the effects of NATO enlargement, and the overall geopolitical situation in the region, including the role of China and Russia’s efforts to reach out to other non-Arctic states. Prof. Zysk also explains how various technologies, such as drones and artificial intelligence, will shape the Arctic security environment in the years ahead.  

The recently destroyed Kakhovka Dam and the nearby Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station are inextricably linked legacies of Soviet energy infrastructure that have become major concerns in the midst of the war in Ukraine. Achim Klüppelberg from the Nuclear Waters project at KTH Royal Institute of Technology is an expert on nuclear energy in Ukraine and Russia, and he joins the podcast to provide an in-depth analysis of the dire situation in the lower-Dnieper region. He also explains the enduring risks and complexities surrounding nuclear energy and infrastructure in the post-Soviet space, including Chernobyl, and discusses an array of nuclear issues related to the Russian Arctic.

The United States is an Arctic country on account of Alaska, which has for almost 50 years been a major domestic source of oil and natural gas, facilitated by the extensive Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Alaska has thus been critical for US energy security, as well as national defense due to its close proximity to Russia. However, despite popular perceptions and controversial projects such as Willow, the dominance of the oil industry in Alaska has declined in recent years. Dr. Philip Wight, assistant professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and an expert on Alaska’s energy infrastructure, joins the podcast to discuss an array of issues related to Alaska and the Arctic, including the changing role of oil in the state’s political economy, environmental concerns connected to the extraction of energy and mineral resources, the importance of the massive military presence in the state, and the enduring tensions between Alaska and the US federal government. He also provides a comparison between Alaska and o

Arctic megaconferences like the annual Arctic Frontiers in Tromsø and the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik have become critical meeting places that literally provide a world stage for the performance of Arctic governance and geopolitics. They have further served a particularly important purpose in the absence of official gatherings during the Arctic Council pause of the past year. Yet how much of what takes place, in public and private, actually influences developments and decision making in the Arctic? Do elaborate PR and public diplomacy activities that characterize conferences affect perceptions of Arctic stakeholders, and are certain voices privileged over others in such contexts? Beate Steinveg, associate professor at Nord University in Norway, has for many years conducted in-depth research on Arctic conferences. She joins the podcast to share her insights into the multifaceted importance of such events in shaping the governance of the region.  Please consider supporting the Polar Geopolitics podcast

Despite the Covid crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources took certain steps forward on the management of key Southern Ocean fisheries during the recent Swedish CCAMLR chairmanship, which concluded in November at the organization’s annual meeting in Hobart. The creation of new Marine Protected Areas and other environmental protection measures have, however, continued to be blocked by some member states. Dr. Jakob Granit, Director General Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, joins the podcast to share his experiences and insights from two years as CCAMLR chair on managing the Antarctic marine environment, engaging with Russia inside the Antarctic Treaty System, and navigating the increasingly complex geopolitical dynamics of Antarctic governance.  Please consider supporting the Polar Geopolitics podcast through PayPal  or Patreon   

Although the Arctic Council has remained on pause since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, multilateral interactions and diplomatic activity among senior Arctic officials (excluding representatives of Russia) has by no means come to a complete stop. Meanwhile, some stakeholders, particularly the Permanent Participant indigenous peoples’ organizations in the Arctic Council, see the current pause, even if well justified, as a relative loss of influence over Arctic governance. Finland’s SAO and Ambassador for Arctic Affairs Petteri Vuorimäki joins the podcast to provide insight into the current situation surrounding the Arctic Council, and to discuss Finland’s Arctic agenda as well as Arctic-Baltic security following Finland and Sweden’s NATO applications.

With energy and strategic raw materials increasingly at the center of geopolitics, the European Union’s first Arctic ambassador argues that Europe should look to certain areas of the Arctic in implementing its Green New Deal and transition towards renewables. Ambassador Marie-Anne Coninsx, senior associate fellow at the Egmont Institute in Brussels, joins the podcast to discuss a new Egmont report she co-authored with Karen van Loon, “Europe’s Energy and Resource Challenge: The Arctic is Part of the Solution”. She also makes the case for Belgium’s Arctic stakeholder status, while elaborating the country’s long-term engagement in the region.

In this moment of crisis, Prof. Oran Young shares insights accumulated across four decades, a time during which he laid the foundation for analyzing Arctic politics, and actively promoted governance initiatives in the circumpolar North. He also reflects on the legacy of Mikael Gorbachev, who was instrumental in establishing the idea of the Arctic as a “Zone of Peace”. This episode of the Polar Geopolitics podcast commemorates the 30th anniversary of Prof. Young’s seminal 1992 work, Arctic Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in the Circumpolar North, which largely launched the social scientific study of the Arctic region.  

Facing the most serious crisis since its founding in 1996, the future of the Arctic Council—currently on pause due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—has become fraught with uncertainty. What role, if any, can Russia possibly play in polar governance institutions if and when the conflict it started eventually subsides? Evan T. Bloom, a Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute who was instrumental in the Council’s establishment and evolution during his long career as the top polar official at the U.S. State Department, joins the podcast to discuss Arctic and Antarctic governance in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. Support the production of the Polar Geopolitics podcast through our PayPal or Patreon pages.

Arctic and Russia expert Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, Professor of War Studies at Loughborough University, joins the podcast for a wide-ranging discussion on the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Arctic and Baltic security, Eurasian geopolitics and the liberal international order, as well as the threat of nuclear escalation and the possibility that great power competition between the United States, Russia and China could result in a new Cold War. Prof. Kennedy-Pipe also shares insights on the new UK Arctic military strategy and the lessons and legacies of the Falklands War forty years ago. Support for the Polar Geopolitics podcast can be provided via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=KXUVZKGALMFXU or Patreon https://www.patreon.com/polargeopolitics

Klaus Dodds, professor of geopolitics at Royal Holloway University of London and author of the recent book Border Wars: The Conflicts that will Define our Future, joins the podcast to discuss the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Arctic Council and Antarctic Treaty System, on Baltic security and UNCLOS processes, and the ways in which the war has deeply disrupted the liberal international order, and potentially ushered in a new era of de-globalization.

The tensions in Arctic relations that began after the 2014 Crimea crisis will in all likelihood be greatly exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Could the new security situation in Europe, together with the increased military activity in the High North in recent years, lead to an Arctic arms race? Russia and Arctic expert Mathieu Boulègue, a research fellow at the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, joins the podcast to provide a real time analysis of the war in Ukraine, the new geopolitical reality in Europe, and the potential implications for Arctic security.

Camp Century, a 1960s US Army base embedded in the Greenland ice sheet, was not only a High Arctic test site for advanced technologies—including a modular nuclear reactor—and secret military schemes at the height of the Cold War, but also a seminal location for the extraction of ice cores that would become an important baseline for modern climate science. Associate professor Kristian H. Nielsen of Aarhus University, who-coauthored a definitive account of this fascinating chapter of Cold War history, “Camp Century: The Untold Story of America's Secret Arctic Military Base Under the Greenland Ice” (Columbia University Press, 2021), joins the podcast to discuss this audacious geostrategic initiative and its enduring afterlife that has continued to complicate Denmark-US-Greenland relations for over 60 years. 

The European Union updated its Arctic policy in October with a communication that took a strong stand on climate change—calling for hydrocarbons to be left in the ground—and pronounced its status as an Arctic geopolitical actor that would assert its interests across the circumpolar North. Ambassador Michael Mann, the EU Special Envoy for Arctic Matters, joins the Polar Geopolitics podcast for an in-depth discussion on the multiple dimensions of the European Union’s engagement in the Arctic, from interactions with Russia, China and the United States, to plans for opening an EU office in Greenland, and its ongoing quest to become an Arctic Council observer.