“Soft Security Responses to Hard Power Competition"

Contribution by Ernie Regehr, O.C.
Senior Fellow in Arctic Security and Defence
The Simons Foundation Canada
Chapter 6 of "ON THIN ICE? Perspectives on Arctic Security"
-edited by Duncan Depledge and P. Whitney Lackenbauer
-published by the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN)

"ON THIN ICE? Perspectives on Arctic Security", edited by Duncan Depledge and P. Whitney Lackenbauer, is a new collection of essays on Arctic Security published by the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN).

The editors of this volume describe it as a rules-based order that “advances the Arctic states’ national interests but their global ones as well,” including possibilities for, among other things, shaping responses to climate change. At the same time, while Arctic cooperation is to be celebrated, defence and security cooperation is facing the challenges “of resurgent major power competition internationally.” 

All these dynamics are explored in this volume. Editors Duncan Depledge and Whitney Lackenbauer do not expect it “to settle the debate about whether the Arctic will still be peaceful in the years and decades ahead,” but in these pages you will find “a range of expert perspectives on Arctic security” and on “the key actors, dynamics, issues, and challenges to which politicians, civil servants, and military planners should be attentive as they make their own enquiries into Arctic defence and security affairs.”

Ernie Regehr’s contribution on “Soft Security Responses to Hard Power Competition” is included as Chapter 6.  The full publication can be accessed at the link below.

"ON THIN ICE? Perspectives on Arctic Security"

Ernie Regehr, O.C. is Senior Fellow in Arctic Security and Defence at The Simons Foundation Canada, and Research Fellow at the Centre for Peace Advancement, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo.