THE EU AS AN ARCTIC POWER - Narratives from Norway and Russia

Abstract

In recent years, the Arctic region has gained much attention as an area of new opportunities and challenges. This has attracted the interest of non-regional players, including the European Union (EU). The EU has explicitly demonstrated its interest in the Arctic region. It is developing its Arctic policies and adopting regulatory documents with extra-territorial effect on the region, as well as participating in a number of international conventions and agreements concerning the Arctic. However, so far only a few approaches have put forward perspectives from the Arctic states on EU actorness in the Arctic. To study the EU’s Arctic engagement from the viewpoints of these states, the master thesis analyses the articles published on Norwegian and Russian media platforms. The study identifies four core narratives of the EU’s engagement in the Arctic and concludes with the findings of the EU as an actor in the Arctic.