Cold War legacies in Russia’s Svalbard policy - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 32

placed, on Russia's post-Cold War Arctic security agenda, we can draw four
main conclusions.
First, the issues surrounding Svalbard in Russia were framed in security
terms by people presumed to be in positions of authority, such as govern-
ment officials at the federal and regional level, high-ranking naval officers,
defence and security analysts and industry representatives (Table 2.1) . Many
of the 'securitizing actors' held similar positions in the Soviet period and
were inclined to analyze the situation in the region with a 'Russia-versus-
the-West' mindset. In addition, the 'audiences' that the 'securitizing actors'
were courting, such as the Russian Security Council, the Foreign Ministry and
the Defence Ministry, shared many of their concerns. The 'audiences' were
generally receptive to the calls for extraordinary measures aimed at neutral-
izing the effects of the developments that were unfolding on and around the
archipelago at the time. Wanting to maintain its presence on the archipelago
and, to the extent possible, moderate the behaviour of a small and vulnerable
neighbour country, Russia had much to win and little to lose by attempting
to 'securitize' certain aspects of Norway's Svalbard policy. It cannot be dis-
missed that Russia's protest notes, as well as the country's occasional display
of military force in the FPZ, may have had at least some effect on Norway's
behaviour. Norway's decision in 2003 to pull the Coles Bay area from the
Protection Plan can be seen as an indication that the Russian protests were
duly noted and taken into consideration in Longyearbyen as well as in Oslo.
Second, there seems to have been a high degree of cross-sectoral spillover of
securitization dynamics. Hence, when the Russian 'securitizing actors' were

Table 2.1 A 'Copenhagen School' perspective on Russia's Svalbard policy

Case Sector of

security

Perceived
subject of
threats

Perceived
object of
threats

Historical
parallel?

Securitizing
actor(s)

Audience(s)

1 Military Radars and

satellite
ground
stations

Russia's
nuclear
deterrence
capability

ESRO
telemetric
station,
1960s

Russian
naval
officers,
security
analysts,
defence
journalists,
Murmansk
Region
Governor,
the fishing
industry

The Russian
Government
(primarily
the Foreign
and Defence
Ministries
and the
Fisheries
Committee),
the Russian
Security
Council

2 Economic,

societal

The 2001
Svalbard Env.
Prot.
Act

Mining
activity,
Barentsburg
settlement

Norwegian
env. prot.
measures,
1970s

3 Economic Norwegian

fishery
enforcement
measures

Russian
fisheries in
Svalbard
waters

First Soviet
protests to
the FPZ,
1977

Source: authors