Arctic exceptionalism: a narrative of cooperation and conflict from Gorbachev to Medvedev and Putin

Abstract

ABSTRACTArctic cooperation is increasingly being questioned in the wake of Russia’s 2022 military actions in Ukraine. Accordingly, many international scholars have declared the narrative of ‘Arctic exceptionalism’ dead or corrupted. Through an analysis of political rhetoric, this paper re-evaluates the construction of Arctic exceptionalism, popularly connected to Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1987 Murmansk speech calling for an Arctic ‘zone of peace’. It is argued that a full picture of this narrative is incomplete without consideration of the developments in Arctic cooperation and conflict in the context of Dmitry Medvedev’s modernisation and multilateralism initiatives as well as Vladimir Putin’s enduring commitment to a defensive and nationalistic foreign policy. Moreover, Medvedev and Putin diverged from Gorbachev’s Arctic exceptionalism due to disparate ideologies and views on militarisation, as well as the global context of interstate mistrust. These insights allow for a new understanding of the dilemma of cooperation and conflict in the Arctic, a microcosm of the Russia-West relationship.KEYWORDS: ArcticRussiainternational relationsforeign policycooperationsecurity Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Koivurova and Shibata, ‘After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022’; Kornhuber et al., ‘The Disruption of Arctic Exceptionalism’.2 Smith, ‘Melting the Myth of Arctic Exceptionalism’; Melchiorre, “The Illusion of the Arctic‘Exceptionalism’”.3 Mikkola, Paukkunen and Toveri, ‘Russian Aggression and the European Arctic’.4 Finlayson, ‘From Beliefs to Arguments’.5 Osherenko and Young, The Age of the Arctic, 5–12.6 Gorbachev, ‘Speech in Murmansk’.7 Åtland, ‘Mikhail Gorbachev, the Murmansk initiative’.8 Purver, ‘Arctic Security’.9 Devyatkin, ‘Environmental Détente’.10 Sergunin and Konyshev, Russia in the Arctic, 41.11 Laruelle, Russia’s Arctic Strategies, 3–5; MFA Russia, ‘O Proyekte Osnov Gosudarstvennoy Politiki V Arktike’; 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