A new northern security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 46

seriously. As a result, nuclear safety in the Arctic has come onto the political
agenda of many states and IGOs, but also other environmental issues dealing
with the military, and thus traditional security, have become items on these
political agendas.
In addition, one key result of the changing definition of security is the
European Union's Northern Dimension (the EU's ND), which has responded
to the new comprehensive human security agenda. From the point of view
of the European Union, the ND is a framework and process for continu-
ous dialogue on cooperation between the EU and its neighbours in North
Europe (the Russian Federation, Norway, Iceland and Greenland) for coor-
dination, and even management, of cross-border cooperation across the EU
borders (European Union 2003). In keeping with its new concern for compre-
hensive and human security, the 'areas for cooperation' under the EU's ND
include, among others, the environment, nuclear safety and energy coopera-
tion. The ND ensures that the EU's environmental requirements are met, as
well as ensuring the necessary actions are taken to monitor relevant and acute
environmental threats. This is evident in a heightened interest by the ND
towards: i) building the capacity for cooperation in nuclear safety and envi-
ronmental issues between Russia and the EU, ii) focusing upon 'sustainable
development' in terms of resource utilization, and iii) 'securing the border'
while harmonizing legislation, standards and procedures in the interests of
protecting and promoting civil society and environmental security . 4
Lastly, if we agree that the early twenty-first century marked the end of
the 'post-Cold War period' in the Arctic, then it is possible to define the
fourth stage of security in the North. It can be seen to incorporate new kinds
of security threats, such as global environmental problems and risks of envi-
ronmental (long-range) degradation and impacts of climate change, and
emphasizes the strategic interests of world powers through economic rather
than military security interests in the region.
All this indicates that Arctic geopolitics, as well as northern security, is in a
dynamic state of transition, and there are new factors influencing security and
affecting perceptions of and changes in the definition of security. One indica-
tor of this is that in the circumpolar North there have already been concrete
and severe consequences of globalization, particularly due to long-range air
and water pollution, and impacts by climate change (see Heininen 2010b:95-
6). Many of these complicated environmental problems are mostly due to the
increased utilization of, and competition over, natural resources. One result
of this is that in the European North, as well in the broader circumpolar
North, there have been, and are, asymmetric environmental conflicts mostly
on the use of land, water and resources among different actors and their inter-
ests (see Osherenko and Young 1989; Riipinen 2005). More environmental
catastrophes are expected and calculated to occur due to off-shore oil drilling
and intensive sea traffic and growing transportation, particularly of exported
Russian heavy oil and liquid gas (LNG) from new Russian oil terminals to