Driven by Nature: The Future of the Arctic

Innovative international co-operation will be the key to the future of the Arctic.

The Arctic region is undergoing large-scale climatic change that is forcing a new strategic reality. Receding ice is opening up access to natural resources and trade routes of great strategic importance. We see the effects of this change on the international and national levels. The littoral Arctic states have articulated a shared international vision for the future of the northern region. Following this, a variety of visions, concepts, claims, legal regimes, strategies and security arrangements are being developed and implemented on national levels, which we consider in detail. The climatic change in the Far North is a breakthrough process driven by nature, urging humankind to lead, innovate and adapt to achieve new breakthroughs in cooperation and management. In this chapter, we examine the complex mechanism of an ongoing breakthrough process of the moving parts of nature, international and national policies and strategies, to uncover lessons for current and future leaders.

An extract from Driven by Nature: The Future of the Arctic, with Arne Solli, Sverre Diesen, Nils Wang and others, in Breakthrough: From Innovation to Impact, Volume 1.

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