Norway's High North Geopolitics:Continuities and Change Through Three Decades

• Main Author: Humrich, Christoph
• Other Authors: Weber, Joachim
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Security; Governance; Norway; foreign policy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/9f214ad6-2a2f-4ef5-8ea9-41315c26d887; https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/9f214ad6-2a2f-4ef5-8ea9-41315c26d887

The chapter reviews Norwegian geopolitics of High North security, sovereignty, and sustainable development from the end of the Cold War to the end of the second decade of the new millennium. The chapter pays particular attention to the consequences of Norway being a small power, but a large coastal state. The formulation of High North policies is traced through the development of respective documents and related to domestic political processes. The policies are characterized by certain internal tensions, around which they have varied over time and which have become more pronounced. As the overall political situation in the High North deteriorates, this might hamper Norway’s ability to remain the pivotal supporter of international cooperation in the Arctic it has been so far.