High North, High Politics: Mutual Securitization and the Erosion of Arctic Exceptionalism

Abstract

This case study provides insights on the effects of the changing Arctic relationship between Russia and the US on the erosion of Arctic exceptionalism and Complex Interdependence between 2008 and 2024, by using the original theory of securitization. It contributes to knowledge of how the Arctic relationship between Russia and the US moved from cooperative to confrontative, and the Arctic from a Complex Interdependent- to a securitized region. Moreover, it contributes to a broader scientific debate by demonstrating mechanisms behind a shift from liberalist, to realist- and constructivist modes of governance in exceptional areas, and underscores the role of securitization in this process. The qualitative study took into account mutual securitization efforts by the US and Russia, in the political, military, economic, environmental, and social domain. By comparing 4 national Arctic strategies to 44 spoken- and written acts by government officials from the US and Russia during 2008-2024, it was uncovered that the Arctic is no longer exempted from geopolitical tension between the US and Russia, leading to the erosion of Arctic exceptionalism. This paper’s main findings included that securitization had a direct effect on the changing relationships in the political, military and economic domain. Through spill-over effects, securitization effects also rippled through to the social- and environmental domain, consequentially decreasing Arctic exceptionalism in all five domains. However, securitization effects were strongest in domains where securitization increased simultaneously to the decrease of Complex Interdependence. Other elements, like the process of de-securitization and NATO’s involvement, also affected this development.