The Future of International Cooperation in the Arctic

The Arctic is a strategically important region for our country, with enormous opportunities, but also with serious global challenges and threats. One such challenge is the erosion of international cooperation. Today, international cooperation in the Arctic is facing the most serious challenge in its history. We argue that today there is a steady trend toward a return to realism in Arctic cooperation, with non-hierarchical goal-setting giving way to the proclamation of national security as the primary goal by most Arctic states. This entails an increase in military budgets, and nation-states are becoming the main actors in Arctic governance. Finally, military power, hitherto largely seen as an "act of desperation", will be increasingly used by the Arctic states in their public rhetoric.