Fundamental problems of geopolitical and socio-cultural development of the Arctic: Islamization, digitalization and transformation of the Arctic space (Russian example)

Abstract

The principal problems of geopolitical and socio-cultural development of the Arctic are analyzed and illustrated with the example of Russia in this study. The authors identified and singled out three of the most acute among them: islamization, digitalization and transformation of the Arctic space in the era of the Fourth industrial revolution and the technological structures’ change. The present study is based on the method of comparative analysis, as well as on axiomatic and empirical definitions, built on the basis of civilization theory, reflecting the problems of technological change, and the theory of innovations diffusion suggested by a Swedish geographer T. Hagerstrand. The current trend is that all issues of Islamic regionalism today are resolved exclusively from the position of force and direct military influence. At the same time, the growth of the Muslim population in the region and the spread of Islamic regionalism ideas make the Arctic and Subarctic region of the Russian Federation a zone of potential development, while the risks of confessional tension are about the same as everywhere else, with the development potential being higher.