Security and Marginality

Abstract

It is argued in this article that after the EU and NATO shift of attention towards eastern Europe, Arctic Europe is again at a turning point behind which a remarginalization and a silent remilitarization (which is often advanced in terms of environmental protection) loom. After a decade during which time the region enjoyed considerable international attention other than military, it is now facing the possibility of a loss in attention resulting from both the Northern Dimension’s development towards, or replacement by, an Eastern Dimension and the decrease in US interest in northern Europe. Yet, marginalization may also be seen as a possibility for the Arctic to regain its own political subjectivity which, resuming lines of thought introduced in the early 1990s, may be understood in terms of a universal Arctic.