The new year is still young, yet Donald Trump’s fixation on expanding his homeland signals a troubling geopolitical shift. From Venezuela to Greenland, the world is unmistakably moving away from the relative stability of the post-cold war era – not least also because of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

This erosion of long-established norms has severe implications for Europe, a continent whose core political philosophy is built on limiting (national) power. A rules-based order, international law and negotiated solutions lie at the core of Europe’s self-image. Yet in today’s world, Europe can uphold this vision only if it evolves into a more muscular geopolitical actor itself – and nowhere is this more evident than in the Arctic.

Once regarded as a zone of peace, the Arctic has moved to the centre of geopolitical competition amid an expanding US footprint, Russia’s longstanding presence and China’s emergence as a global power. For Europe, this should not come as a surprise. The region is hardly a new frontier; the EU already has a presence there through its three Nordic member states: the Kingdom of Denmark (without Greenland), Finland, and Sweden. Indeed, the European Arctic’s vast resource wealth – from hydrocarbons to critical minerals and marine proteins – already forms part of Europe’s economic backbone and could further shape the continent’s strategic autonomy in the future.

Yet despite an evolving EU Arctic policy since 2008, and similar policy efforts by the bigger EU governments, the broader circumpolar north has remained largely absent from European strategic security debates. Its very peace and stability offered........

© The Guardian