| Summary: | During the first decade of the XXIth century, the Arctic has received growing attention from scholars, policymakers and multinational corporations. Climate change as well as renewed political and economical interests from coastal and non-coastal States had repositioned this region as a prospective theater in the Great powers chessboard. Since 2001, the Russian Federation has taken several international and domestic actions to guarantee its national interest in what it considers as the Russian Arctic, a space that comprises about 22 600 kilometers of national coastline with the Arctic Ocean. But climate change, historical socio-economic developments and strategic imperatives have conditioned this engagement.The Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblasts plays nowadays a leading role in the implementation of a cross-domain Russian strategy for the Arctic region. This dissertation will then assess the central challenges of Russian National Security and Strategy in the Occidental Arctic taking in consideration recent changes in the Russian Federation political and economical model, the emerging role of private and foreign actors and the specificity of Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.The first part of this dissertation will try to underline the past/current strategic and economical relevance of the Occidental Arctic for the Russian Federation. A historical approach will allow us to better understand the current role of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblasts while we will appreciate its socio-economic potential thanks to the analysis of demographic, industrial and commercial developments of these regions. Finally, a study on defense and energy industries adaptation to international markets will be conducted as well as a regional risk-assessment concerning climate change and industrial pollution.In a second part, our main objective is to demonstrate the strategic and economical importance of the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblasts for the Russian Arctic policy. This will lead us to analyse core issues in the Occidental Arctic for state and ...
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