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Climate Change and the Great Power Rivalry in the Arctic

The world politics of the 2020s seems to consist of two realities: People are concerned about an ecological catastrophe, as pollution kills millions and climate change threatens societies. The focus of this article is to discuss climate change, and state politics in the Arctic in the context of the two realities. Behind this is the assumption that climate change mitigation is a challenge to state politics and national security. The commentary assumes that, although in world politics, there is a new (East-West) great power rivalry with its related conflicts, no armed conflicts appear in the Arctic, but environmental degradation and rapid climate change still threaten the people. The study firstly analyses how environmental issues came onto the political agenda of States, in particular, that of the Arctic states; secondly, it discusses huge investment packages and great power rivalry as substitutes for climate change mitigation, revealing the political inability of states; thirdly, it examines the Arctic from the point of view of functional cooperation on environmental protection, and that on science; and finally, it concludes what has possibly gone wrong in state politics related to the environment, and could be taken as the biggest challenge.

Climate Change and the Great Power Rivalry in the Arctic
 

 

 

 

since the early 21st century, the Modern Project has been replaced by the Global Age, where the present is ‘reality in flux,’ as globalization, including the globalized Arctic, “offers both economic competition and cosmopolitanism as an alternative to the historical construction of the American hyphenated identity.”1 As a part of that reality, the main message of the 2021 UN Climate Change Report,2 as an awakening call, reflects the crossing of several ‘planetary boundaries.’ A global ecological catastrophe –pollution, loss of biodiversity, climate change, and related impacts combined– puts the existence of human life in danger. Buzan and Hansen foresaw and warned that global warming and the possibility of a rampant and virulent epidemic are “the two most likely environmental wild cards.”3 Indeed, in addition to an ecological catastrophe, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as an invisible enemy causing terror among citizens and threatening our modern societies. The pandemic is far from over, as there are still infections with new waves and mutations, deaths, as well as slowness in distributing vaccinations globally.

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