Navigating Melting Ice and Eroding Exceptionalism: Theory-Driven Policy Pathways for NATO’s High North Commitment

By Pauline Baudu, Research assistant at the Wilson Center Polar Institute and Environmental Change and Security Program, and at the Center for Climate and Security (Washington, DC), IRIS Sup’ graduate in Defense, Security and Crisis Management

The warming Arctic has emerged as a great power politics front again, with climate change acting as a catalyst of interests in the region. The shift in focus from soft security to harder security threats has been challenging the “Arctic exceptionalism” narrative and posing a new challenge for a recently revived NATO – of which five members are Arctic countries – as to the role the Alliance should play in the region. The discussion has become even more timely considering the major strategic shift operating in the wake of Russia’s renewed war on Ukraine, which has been impacting a globalised and vulnerable Arctic. As NATO’s new Strategic Concept mentions the High North for the first time, and in light of the Alliance’s recent Climate and Security Action Plan, this policy paper aims at defining a grid for analysing NATO’s Arctic role and considers policy pathways and priorities.

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