The Politics of the Changing Arctic

The Arctic region is warming four times faster than the global average, and the Arctic Ocean is likely to become ice-free in summer months much faster than anyone had expected even a few years ago. This is having a huge impact on the politics of the region, and is what social scientists call a “natural experiment” (even though it is the result of human activity) or an “exogenous shock” to the status quo. A second “endogenous” shock (meaning that it came from an actor inside the region) happened when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, even though Ukraine is not in the Arctic. This is because Russia is the largest Arctic state by both landmass and population, while all seven of the other Arctic states are now NATO members. The facts of both climate change and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have enormous implications for virtually every realm of Arctic politics and policy, and in turn for concerns that extend beyond the Arctic: from local governance to cooperative international institutions, from commercial trade to military security, from environmental disasters to economic windfalls (including for indigenous communities). In this lecture course we will explore these changes and their implications in depth. 

Not open to students who have received credit for POLS  BC3060: Colloquium on Arctic Politics.