{"id":659819,"date":"2026-10-28T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/659819\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:18:09","slug":"eus-new-arctic-strategy-signals-shift-in-its-geopolitical-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/659819\/","title":{"rendered":"EU\u2019s new Arctic strategy signals shift in its geopolitical mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU recently presented its latest Arctic strategy<\/a>. It is the bloc\u2019s fifth such strategy since 2008 and the first to be published since 2021, a few months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n

This conflict has disrupted Arctic<\/a> governance. The work of the Arctic Council, which includes Russia as one of its eight member states, was paused shortly after<\/a> the invasion. The council is the primary forum for cooperation in the region.<\/p>\n

Since 2022, the Russian security threat<\/a> in the Arctic has also grown<\/a>. Russia has engaged in hybrid activities<\/a> in the region, ranging from disinformation operations and GPS jamming to the targeting of pipelines and undersea cables. <\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s new strategy has four priorities: strengthening peace, security and resilience in the Arctic, addressing climate change, delivering economic development and ensuring regional and social development for Arctic communities. <\/p>\n

These priorities are broadly in line with the previous 2021 strategy<\/a>, in which geopolitical issues were already more present than in earlier years. But there are several major changes.<\/p>\n

More security and less climate action<\/p>\n

A word count reveals the profound impact the deteriorating cooperation context has had on the EU\u2019s stance on the region. In the latest update, the word \u201csecurity\u201d is mentioned 52 times compared with 23 times in 2021. By contrast, \u201cclimate change\u201d appears only 14 times in the new strategy compared with 30 times previously. <\/p>\n

This shift towards security is a general trend in the Arctic since 2022. The creation of an annual Arctic Security Conference<\/a> in 2024, which discusses security trends in the region, is an example of this. Security also figures prominently in recently published national Arctic strategies, including France, Italy, Germany and Sweden. <\/p>\n

Climate change is not completely absent from the EU\u2019s latest Arctic strategy, and the bloc reaffirmed its commitment to combat it in the document. But, where previously climate change was the cornerstone<\/a> of the EU\u2019s Arctic engagement, it is now presented through a security lens. Climate change is identified as \u201camplifying security risks\u201d and a \u201cdefining threat\u201d from which Arctic inhabitants need to be \u201cprotected\u201d. <\/p>\n

Security shapes all four priorities of the new strategy. Arctic communities also get much more attention than in earlier documents.<\/p>\n

Although the inclusion of Indigenous people also figures more prominently, the conflation between Indigenous and local people has previously been criticised<\/a> by the Saami Council. The conflation undermines the specific rights and distinct interests of Indigenous groups such as the S\u00e1mi. <\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/p>\n

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivers a statement on the EU\u2019s new Arctic strategy at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on October 20.
\n Ronald Wittek \/ EPA<\/p>\n

A \u2018northern neighbourhood\u2019<\/p>\n

Another key change in the EU\u2019s new Arctic strategy is the introduction of the concept of a \u201cnorthern neighbourhood\u201d. The name suggests similarities with the EU\u2019s European Neighbourhood Policy<\/a>, which it launched in 2004 to foster closer ties with its eastern and southern neighbours. But it is unclear what exact form the northern neighbourhood will take.<\/p>\n

The northern neighbourhood is not presented as a new multilateral institution. Instead, it has been put forward as a political framework enabling cooperation projects and integration between the EU and \u201clike-minded\u201d partners such as Greenland, Norway, Iceland, Canada and the UK. <\/p>\n

By excluding Russia, this new political framework signals a change in the EU\u2019s understanding of the Arctic. The EU\u2019s early engagement in the region came from a will to extend European integration to the east and north in the 2000s. The Arctic was also an area where cooperation with Russia was possible, despite disagreements elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The concept of a northern neighbourhood reveals a geographical shift in focus towards Greenland and the west and north Atlantic more generally. Yet while the US is still listed among the potential members of the northern neighbourhood, it comes with implicit conditions. <\/p>\n

According to the new strategy, a partnership with the US needs to be \u201cpredictable\u201d and based on \u201cshared interests and values\u201d. This is reminiscent of the language that prevailed for Russia in the previous policies.<\/p>\n

What kind of power is the EU?<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest change in the new strategy lies in the document\u2019s affirmation that multilateral cooperation \u201ccan no longer be the sole foundation of the EU\u2019s Arctic approach\u201d. <\/p>\n

This means two things. First, that multilateralism is no longer the prominent form of cooperation in the Arctic. And second, that the EU\u2019s geopolitical stance in general is changing from being the champion and embodiment of multilateralism to another form of power. <\/p>\n

This is also visible in the emphasis the new strategy puts on the EU\u2019s material capabilities and infrastructures as conditions for security. It includes mention of, among other things, developing Europe\u2019s capacity to build icebreaker vessels.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s new Arctic strategy signals a broad shift in the European geopolitical mindset. Climate change and multilateralism have been overshadowed by security concerns due to the fractured Arctic geopolitical landscape.<\/p>\n

However, ultimately, climate change and social concerns will remain key priorities of Arctic inhabitants and the EU should not lose sight of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EU recently presented its latest Arctic strategy. It is the bloc\u2019s fifth such strategy since 2008 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-659819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}