A new role for NATO in the High North? The European Arctic and Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2014

• Applicant: Dr. Olena Podvorna, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525595073

The diversity of scholarships examining the range of the issues in the High North shows that the Arctic is not a unified space from a security perspective, which obviously makes ensuring security a difficult task. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2014 already revealed the problem, however tensions in the Arctic were mitigated then. The large-scale war forced European Arctic states to reformulate postures towards Russia, the Alliance, and the Arctic security environment, calling the traditional mode of security governance in the region into question. Correspondingly, the proposed study analyzes security and foreign policy of European Arctic states (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Finland) since 2014 to track the change and continuity vis-à-vis Russia as well as NATO. Accordingly, the study is able to investigate how European Arctic states reconstruct threats, challenges, and risks, and correspondingly their security and foreign policy, especially vis-à-vis NATO: are European Arctic states open to a more substantial role for NATO in the region? Should the essence of the Alliance’s role in the Arctic be limited to Article V of NATO’s Treaty? Will the Arctic be remilitarized and re-securitized again if NATO is to be a proactive game changer and a security provider there? Is it possible to construct a security model that would combine traditional and non-traditional thinking about security and its practicing correspondingly? How could a security dilemma associated with Russia be addressed under an increased NATO’s role in the High North?

• DFG Programme: WBP Position