Rethinking Arctic governance
The Arctic is at a geopolitical crossroads. Russia's war on Ukraine has effectively paralysed the Arctic Council, leaving a governance vacuum at a moment of rising security threats, hybrid attacks on critical infrastructure, and intensifying great power competition.
At the same time, the Trump administration's ambitions over Greenland are deepening divisions between the US, Canada and the Nordic countries, while the climate crisis, the most acute long-term threat to the Arctic, risks being sidelined in a security-dominated debate.
Against this backdrop, the EU is revising its 2021 Arctic Policy. A new policy brief by Kirsti Methi and Dr. Dorothea Wehrmann asks what role the EU can credibly play in the region and how it can build legitimacy as a partner. Their answer centres on soft power, human security and co-creative governance with Arctic communities and Indigenous peoples.