Authors

George Soroka¹;  ¹ Harvard University, United States

Discussion

The Arctic has long been regarded as an exceptional region, one wherein cooperation between Arctic littoral states was possible even when geopolitical tensions between them ran high in other parts of the world. The Arctic was thus regarded as a "zone of peace" in the post-Soviet era, one wherein such military alliances as NATO had minimal strategic impact. Indeed, the main governing body of the region, the inter-governmental Arctic Council, specifically stated in its mandate that it was not set up to deliberate military policy.  

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 changed the regional calculus entirely. As a result, NATO looks poised to expand to Finland and Sweden, bringing it in ever-closer contact not only to Russia, but also the Far North. 

This paper examines the latest changes that have taken place in terms of thinking of the Arctic as a strategic arena. It focuses on evolving US threat perceptions in the region, as well as Russia's build-out of its military infrastructure in the Arctic. Relying on interviews and open-source documentation, I argue that we require a new paradigm for understanding the role of the Arctic in Russia's collective imaginary, one that has been insufficiently understood or appreciated previously by most Western-based scholars.