NORWAY AND THE ARCTIC: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NORWEGIAN DEFENSE POLICY IN COPING WITH MILITARY DEVELOPMENT IN THE REGION (2013 - 2016)

Abstract

The Arctic, situated in the northernmost area on Earth, has become increasingly attractive for many nations to claim their rights to territorial sovereignty over some portions of the region. The early exploration was began since the first decades of the 20th century merely to have scientific, geopolitical, and even commercial purposes with the pursuit of national interests. Being aware of the fact that climate change is happening in the Arctic has made most of the ice melted that it resulted to give several access to bigger continents, abundant resources and path to the other Arctic nations, have created uncertainty and possible tensions in the region. Norway, as one of the Arctic nations, is impacted by this uncertainty of global security environment in the Arctic and the state can't deny but to feel the massive increase military pressure and political activity in the Arctic region. Among all of the Arctic nations, Norway is one of the Arctic nations that value deeper international cooperation and believe in using military as the last resort. However there is one state that is being the most anticipated Arctic nation by Norway in the High North which is Russia. Russia's illegal actions encompasses both hard security issues and soft security issues thus Norway needs to increase its military capabilites since Russia has started to eyeing the High North. Therefore, Norway has been aiming a defense policy based on cooperation and deterrence, improved and developed by current Prime Minister Erna Solberg. The Norwegian Armed Forces (army, navy, air force) will be reformed and modernized, military budget will be allocated more, in hope that it will be able to cope and prevent potential threats and challenges in the Arctic especially against Russia's illegal actions and military developments.