Since the turn of the century, the Arctic has increasingly been in the global spotlight, resulting in the often invoked idea of “Arctic exceptionalism” being questioned. At the same time, the unconventional political power which the Arctic’s Indigenous peoples hold calls into question conventional ideas about geopolitics and security. This handbook examines security in this region, revealing contestations and complementarities between narrower, state-based and/or militarized notions of security and broader security perspectives reflecting concerns and debates about changes in climate, environment, economies, and societies.

The volume is split into five thematic parts:

  • Theorizing Arctic Security
  • The Arctic Powers
  • Security in the Arctic through Governance
  • Non-Arctic States, Regional and International Organizations
  • People, States, and Security.

This book will be of great interest to students of Arctic politics, global governance, geography, security studies, and International Relations.

This book is part of the activities of the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Extractive Industries: It is one of the key results of the SIU project HNP-2014-10042 and the RCN project 257644/H30. Throughout our research work, we noticed that extractive industries in the Arctic pose particular challenge for notions of security, which some of the chapters in this Handbook analyse in detail. 35 chapters, many TN authors’ contributions, such as from Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Marc Lanteigne, Aytalina Ivanova, Florian Stammler, Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Gordon Cooke, Gail Fondahl.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315265797