Mr Bipandeep Sharma1
1Panjab University, Chandigarh, Chandigarh, India
Rapidly transforming Arctic has led to rethink the concept of security in the region. The increasing global warming and opening up of Arctic, has brought multiple geopolitical issues before Arctic and non-Arctic states. In order to dominate and defend mainly their economic and strategic interests, a race to ‘securitise the Arctic’ has started amongst the dominating Arctic states. This securitisation of polar north is being perceived not only in traditional military sense, but also through the notions of non-traditional security threat dilemmas of energy, environment, sustainability, human security, secure connectivity etc. By applying securitisation lens to all these emerging issues, the dominant Arctic players are actually bringing these emerging Arctic issues out of the realm of ‘normal politics’ to ‘security politics’. Asian states that are directly or indirectly impacted by changing Arctic are at conundrum, as securitisation of Arctic through multiple threat dilemmas is leaving little space for addressing common issues of global concern. This paper highlight all these emerging geopolitical issues (otherwise perceived as ‘security threats’) in Arctic, that need not to be addressed in securitisation framework, but rather in cognisance with global challenges of mutual cooperation and de-securitisation context.
Biography:
I am a Ph.D candidate at the Center for the Study Geopolitics, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh. I have done my Masters and M.Phil. in Defence and Strategic Studies.
