Introduction: Theorizing and Broadening Arctic Security—Towards the Environment and Climate

Abstract

This book assesses the construction of security in the context of climate change, with a focus on the Arctic region. It examines and discusses changes in the security premises of the Arctic states, from traditional security to environmental and human security. In particular, the book explores how environmental degradation and climate change impact, and have impacted and changed, security discourses and premises as well as theoretically discusses the possibility for another change: from circumpolar stability into peaceful change. Chapters cover topics including the ethics of climate change in the Arctic; the discursive transformation of the definition of security; the intersection between urban, climate and Arctic studies; China’s emerging influence on Arctic climate security; to militarization and changes in the security nexus of the Arctic. The book concludes with the question of whether a paradigm shift in our understanding of traditional security is possible, and indeed whether it is already occurring in the Arctic.