NATO’s Securitisation of Climate Change in the Arctic

Abstract

This study analyses how and why the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) securitises climate change in the Arctic. The study recognises that climate change has not only endangered the environmental security of the Arctic but has also intensified geopolitical competition over the region’s resources and trade routes as a threat multiplier. Regarding the impact of the changing structure of the region from the “cooperation front” to the “competition area”, the study reveals that NATO considers climate change as a part of the collective defence dimension of its organizational identity, along with increasing geopolitical competition, to develop an integrated approach in its Arctic policy. Drawing on the Copenhagen School and social constructivism, the study presents that NATO resorts to securitisation discourses that concretise the threat to address climate change within the scope of its organizational identity.

Keywords

• nato
• climate change
• social constructivism
• copenhagen school
• organizational identity