A new northern security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 49

for example, the international cooperation for nuclear safety in the Barents
Region, the DEW Line Clean Up Protocol and the statements to clean up
severe contamination by the military in the Russian Arctic indicate.
Indeed, there is ongoing cooperation for cleaning up the environmental
damages of the military at national and international levels, such as the devel-
opment of new technology for cleaning up by the Norwegian-Russian-US
Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation programme as mentioned ear-
lier. AMEC is not an official part of the international cooperation for Arctic
environmental protection under the auspices of the Arctic Council, as more
general traditional security and security-policy issues were excluded from
the political agendas of organizations such as the Arctic Council and the
Barents Euro-Arctic Council (see Heininen 2004b). It can be, however, taken
as evidence that the environmental impact caused by the military has been
acknowledged to be a problem.
All this indicates that, in spite of the above-mentioned counter-arguments,
the concept of comprehensive security is presently widely accepted and used
when issues of trans-boundary influences and cross-border cooperation are
discussed, and in the context of states and society when dealing with inter-
nal security or defining security from the point of view of citizens. Due to
the fact that there is both stability in the Arctic region and more confidence
among northern actors, and hopefully less nationalist and ideological aspects,
it would be possible to broaden the discussion on security to include factors
previously considered taboo. It is not honest, but artificial, to exclude some
relevant aspects of an issue when trying to build a comprehensive, holistic
picture. For example, it is important to include all possible pollutants and
potential polluters when trying to define all sources of pollution of a region.
However, the whole viewpoint of the military as a polluter is complicated,
sensitive and in a way 'hidden' and, consequently, at the same time it is very
political and relevant. This is also the case in the circumpolar North, par-
ticularly as it is strategically important to both the major nuclear powers and
other Arctic states, as previously mentioned. Furthermore, the nuclear weap-
ons system, which is still the backbone of major powers, as well as nuclear
power and facilities, always include a risk of a nuclear accident, which can-
not be overlooked. Finally, environmental pollution has been seen as a real
problem only for a relatively short time and, therefore, more monitoring and
evaluation of the environmental impacts and socio-economic impacts of mili-
tary activities is needed.
Key phenomena of a northern security in the early
twenty-first century
When applying the technology models of (classical) geopolitics, the end of
the Cold War has not meant an exclusion of the military because, in many
parts of the circumpolar North, heavy military structures are still present.