FRÅN SAMARBETE TILL SÄKERHET? Arktiska rådet och säkerhetisering i ett förändrat geopolitiskt landskap

Abstract

This thesis examines how and to what extent securitisation has occurred in the Arctic Council, and how these expressions have changed in a more geopolitically tense context after the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022. Drawing on securitisation theory, the study analyses ministerial declarations from Arctic Council meetings in 2021 and 2025, complemented by two informant interviews with diplomats working in Arctic affairs. The findings show that securitisation has increased after 2022 but mainly within non-traditional security sectors. Environmental security is the most consistently securitised issue, especially through the framing of climate change as an urgent and wide-ranging threat. Political security has become more prominent, as the Arctic Council itself is increasingly portrayed as a reference object whose function and legitimacy must be protected. The thesis concludes that the Arctic Council has not abandoned its cooperative role but operates under more strained conditions.