The European Union’s ‘never again’ Arctic narrative

ABSTRACT

Over the past few decades, the European Union has presented itself on the world stage as a norm entrepreneur and global maritime power. However, this claim to power is belied by its recent experience of a surge in crises – both of domestic and international origin. Nonetheless, the EU’s 2021 update to its Arctic Policy noted that, due to the Union’s strategic Arctic interests, full engagement in Arctic matters is a geopolitical necessity for the EU. Given the augmented attention on the Arctic region for climate, economic and, increasingly, for security reasons, this is not surprising. However, it does beg the question of how the EU intends to involve itself more thoroughly in Arctic affairs. This article seeks to explore the extent to which the Union’s foundational narrative of ‘never again’ regarding conflict and war can explain EU actions in the Arctic, the EU as a peaceful maritime power and its broader approach to ocean governance, particularly in the Circumpolar North.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• Arctic
• ocean governance
• ontological security studies
• maritime power
• norms

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Statement

This academic article has not been published previously, or submitted to any other journal

Notes

1. We focus on the Commission’s (Joint) Communications only because they refer to a new attribution of competences since the Treaty of Lisbon and the possibility of both the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy submitting joint proposals to the Council in areas of external action.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Norwegian Research Council under the project “OCEANGOV” (#315163).