A new northern security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 37

A new northern security
Environmental degradation and risks, climate
change, energy security, trans-nationalism
and flows of globalization and governance
Lassi Heininen
Introduction
It could be argued that classical geopolitics, meaning both military security
based on the technology models of geopolitics, as well as natural resource
exploitation based on the resource models of geopolitics, has dominated the
relations between the circumpolar North and the outside world (see Heininen
2004a:218, 2010a:231-5). Since the end of the Cold War period there has,
however, been a significant shift from the military confrontation between the
superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, to international and regional
cooperation in many fields, e.g. economics, environmental protection, research
and higher education. This shift has included a change in the way that secu-
rity has been defined (see Häyrynen and Heininen 2002).
Part of this shift can be exemplified through, for example, the increased ref-
erence to energy security, meaning the guarantee and improvement of both
availability to and accessibility of energy resources (mostly oil and gas). At least
since the beginning of the twenty-first century, energy security has become a core
national interest for many countries and a central goal of several governments.
In 2006 alone, energy security was often proclaimed the main theme of many
international gatherings, e.g. the European Union Summit of March 2006, the
Summit of the Shanghai Treaty Organization in June 2006, the Summit of the
Group 8 under the Russian Presidency in July 2006 and the sixth Asia-Europe
Meeting in August 2006. This trend has continued and, due to the growing scar-
city of oil and continued interest in energy security, important diplomatic efforts
such as the EU-Russian dialogue have become critical to strengthening stability,
well-being and sustainable development in northern Europe, especially follow-
ing EU enlargement into eastern Europe. The European North, or the western
part of the Eurasian North, has become more important to Europe as a whole,
as well as to the European Union and its member states, both economically and
strategically. Consequently, in geopolitics, the region's rich energy resources are
significantly outweighing any focus on military security on the global stage.
Trends towards less militarized understandings of security are increasing in the
Arctic, demanding closer examination by analysts.