The Evolving North American Arctic Security Context: Can Security Be Traditional?

Abstract

The Arctic remains a hotly contested terrain. While many of the contentious issues are circumpolar-wide or even global in nature, issues of security and threats to sovereignty are more connected to the political domain of nation states. Nonetheless, this is changing as new scholarship explores political debates about sovereignty in relation to sub-national and non-state actors, Indigenous peoples organizations, and environmental change. With new surveillance technologies, the growing internationalization of Arctic travel, increased commercial activity, search and rescue operations, and ecological change, national governments and international organizations are now adjusting their approach to security, and protection of sovereignty. The result has been a shift in emphasis from conventional approaches to sovereignty and security to new mechanisms, structures, and processes that are more inclusive and that accommodate circumpolar-wide issues such as climate change and natural or man-made disaster. The development of an Arctic-specific approach to Northern North American security must, therefore, be mindful of the unique characteristics and pressures associated with the broader circumpolar region, as well as the particular characteristics of the Canada-US situation.