The Amazing Race. On Resources, Conflict, and Cooperation in the Arctic

Thanks to the ongoing melting of the Arctic Ocean sea ice the Arctic natural resources have become an increasingly topical issue in international politics. Traditionally the Arctic political puzzle has contained a variety of political actors: in addition to the Arctic states there are a number of active intergovernmental, regional, indigenous, environmental, scientific and non-governmental organizations. Many “non-Arctic” actors, such as China and Japan, have also shown increasing interest in Arctic activities lately. The media often describes the situation as a “Cold Rush” or “Arctic Race” in which the coastal states are competing for the ownership of and control over the new oil and gas resources and the transport routes. Consequently, the alleged conflict potential in the Arctic has been repeatedly in the headlines. The view has, however, usually been based on single events, such as military exercises or flag planting underneath and above the Arctic Ocean’s surface. In the academic debate there appears to be two major, and somewhat competing, interpretations as regards the near future Arctic international politics. The first of them underlines the role of states and sovereignty, whereas the second highlights international governance and cooperation. What seems to connect the views is that, in contrast to the mainstream media picture, both contain a number of issues that point to the continuity of peaceful development of the Arctic. It is argued in this paper that the main security challenges in the Arctic are not related to traditional interstate security questions. Rather, deeper transformation from negative peace (absence of war/violence) into positive peace (integration, cooperation) calls for solving dilemmas that concern environmental and human security. Three examples of these (BPing the Arctic, tigers and polar bears, Arctic paradox) are discussed in the paper.