| dc.description.abstract | This report aims at describing and analyzing important changes that have taken place in Russia’s approach to the
European Arctic after the Cold War, emphasizing in particular the relationship between commercial and militarystrategic
interests. The report is based on six case studies: (1) The plans to build an oil terminal in Murmansk; (2) the
development of oil and gas fields in the Russian part of the Barents Sea; (3) the Norwegian-Russian negotiations on the
delimitation of the Barents Sea shelf and economic zones; (4) Russia’s approach to the Svalbard archipelago; (5) the
utilization of the Northern Sea Route; and (6) the conversion of the naval yards in Severodvinsk. During the Cold War,
the Barents Sea was primarily viewed as a theater of naval operations, and the commercial actors were relegated to
playing a subordinate role. After Mikhail Gorbachev’s so-called “Murmansk Speech” in 1987, the Soviet Union’s onedimensional
approach to the northern regions was gradually replaced by a multi-dimensional approach. Many of the
issues that were previously considered crucial to national security were slowly but steadily “desecuritized”. In today’s
post-bipolar context, Russia’s policy in the North is increasingly governed by commercial interests. Whereas the
potential of an ideologically based military conflict in the European Arctic has been eliminated, the risk of local
resource-related conflicts may increase in the years ahead. It remains to be seen whether such conflicts can be dealt with
as negotiable political/economic problems or if they will be “securitized”. | en_GB |