Discussion
Details
In the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Arctic is declared as "Common Heritage of Mankind". Common Heritage means, among other things, the respect for sustainability and protection against exploitation by individual nation states or companies. According to the European Arctic Policy, Arctic states bear the main responsibility in terms of addressing problems. Towards the end of the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev called for the Arctic to be transformed into a "Zone of Peace" which made the region to be considered free of geopolitical tensions or military actions. Today, however, many challenges are to be addressed through multilateral and regional cooperation, so that the Arctic is gaining importance in terms of security policy. The EU, the U.S., Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Russia are not only interested in the region because of its valuable and abundant resources that are covered by the melting ice. Strategic interest and competition for power and influence is developing on the part of China, the U.S. and Russia is also growing and materialising in the region as the melting ice is giving better access to the far north and its resources.
To what extent are the European member states, bordering the Arctic region, involved in the race for the Arctic? How can the European Union engage with the growing geopolitical importance of the Arctic, the impact of competition for natural resources, and new environmental and security risks in the region? What are Brussels and the EU member states, especially the Nordic countries, already doing in terms of security policy? Shouldn't the Nordic countries in particular be given more voice in EU Arctic policy?
In our online event, we not only want to find answers to these questions, but also to point out the complexity of the Arctic, both politically and geographically and why united and cohesive European action towards this is needed more than ever. Initially, Dr Andreas Raspotnik, Senior Fellow and member of the Leadership Group at the Arctic Institute, Norway, will present the KAS study Looking North. The European Union and Arctic Security from a Nordic and German Perspective. This will be followed by an expert discussion with Michael Mann, EU Special Envoy for Arctic Matters and Lin A. Mortensgaard, Research Assistant at the Centre for Military Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, and Dr Andreas Raspotnik on 25th November from 16:30 until 17:45.
We are looking forward to your participation and an exciting and fruitful discussion.
For registration please use the following LINK.
