Ecologic Institute cooperates on researching the "Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean".  The work culminates in a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) and a book that addresses the prevention of conflicts in relation to scarcity of resources, and threats to environmental security with implications for economic, cultural and political instability. The project's main sponsor is the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS).

Building on the results of the Arctic Transform project on Transatlantic Policy Options for Supporting Adaptation in the Marine Arctic, and the EU Arctic Footprint and Policy Assessment, Ecologic Institute collaborates with the Scott Polar Research Institute of Cambridge University, and the Legal Department of the Council for the Study of Productive Resources of the Russian Academy of Sciences as ARW co-directors.

The goal of the research and AWR is to engage scientists, international law authorities and policy makers in characterising environmental security risks and define institutional and other solutions to jointly meet possible threats in the Arctic Ocean.  Specific objectives are to:

1. identify and assess environmental security risks against the background of international governance challenges in this globally-relevant region; and
2. consider opportunities and institutional options for cooperation, including perpetuating science as a tool of diplomacy, to resolve environmental security risks in the Arctic Ocean.

The research and workshop results are to be published as a book.

Further links:

• Overview of the Ecologic Institute Arctic Program
• The EU Arctic Footprint and Policy Assessment Project, website with background, links and downloads
• Ecologic Project: Arctic Footprint and Policy Assessment
• Arctic Transform: Transatlantic Policy Options for Supporting Adaptation in the Marine Arctic, project web site with background, links and downloads
• Ecologic Event: Policy Pathways Toward Improved Governance of a Warming Arctic, Seminar, Washington DC, 21 April 2009
• Ecologic Presentation by R. Andreas Kraemer: Climate Change as a Security Threat of the Next Generation for NATO Brussels, 24 February 2009
• Ecologic Event: Dinner Dialogue with Jamie Shea and Helga Schmid: New Threats Arising from Climate Change and Energy Scarcity – What Role for International Governance?
• Book Publication by Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Senior Policy Advisor to Ecologic Institute: Energy Security – Re-measuring the world  (Earthscan, 2008)
• Ecologic Project: Responding to Environmental Conflicts: Implications for Theory and Practice and Ecologic Institute book publication (Kluwer, 2001)
• Ecologic Publication: Environmental Change and Security - A European Perspective, (Springer, 1999)

Keywords: Arctic, Environment, Security Risks, Threats, Science and Diplomacy, international Institutions, Governance

Sponsor: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Co-financing: Ecologic Institute
Partners: University of Cambridge, Scott Polar Institute
Team: R. Andreas Kraemer, Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Sandra Cavalieri, Christoph Stefes
Duration: 2 January 2010 until 1 July 2011
Project number: 101