The Military-Political Transformation of the North European Countries: Arctic Region

The article provides an assessment of the Western expert community’s perception of the geopolitical and geostrategic changes that have occurred in recent years on the world stage and their impact on the Arctic region. The role and place in the emerging new military-political environment of a number of Northern European countries is shown. Attempts to compete among them for leadership on the northern flank of NATO have been highlighted. Special attention is paid to new NATO members Finland and Sweden. Norway’s leading role in many ongoing processes is shown. The article outlines changes in Western military experts’ views and approaches to the security of the Arctic region, its role and place in NATO’s strategic concepts, as well as the reflection of these changes on military planning issues. In terms of military-technical changes, progress has been noted in building up NATO’s military infrastructure, deconservating Cold War-era facilities, and forming new infrastructure facilities in the interests of deploying new and perspective weapons systems in the region (unmanned aerial and naval vehicles, the latest F-35 aircraft systems, etc.). The author concludes that the military-political activity of the countries of the Arctic region leads to its significant militarization, which changes the military-political and military-strategic balance of forces and interests in the region.