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Arctic Melt: Strategic Implications for Russia

Student: Kececi Engin

Supervisor: Julia Lajus

Faculty: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Educational Programme: International Relations in Eurasia (Master)

Final Grade: 8

Year of Graduation: 2020

The Arctic regions are warming nearly twice as faster than rest of the planet. This poses serious risks to Russia such as melting of the permafrost as nearly two-thirds of Russia’s territory has permafrost soil and most infrastructure in the Arctic regions are built upon it.. The latest IPCC reports suggest that major emitter countries in the world should urgently implement policies to prevent further warming before it will reach an irreversible point. This study is an attempt to find out the main factors behind policy-making in the Arctic that does not allow adaptation of more environment-friendly policies and main focus of Russian Arctic Policy and the developments in the region in accordance with the policies. Based on literature review on Russian Arctic and climate policies and theories on foreign policy and discourse analysis, data was collected from policy documents and online media resources. This study shows that Russian Arctic Policy is mainly focused on economic opportunities such as resource extraction and development of the Northern Sea Route and does not take in to account risks from global warming to Russian territory. Furthermore, Arctic has become a site of identity construction and "territorialisation" of myths and Russian Arctic Policy and climate policy are guided by the same concepts.

Full text (added May 31, 2020)

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