Kadin Mills
ICT
WASHINGTON — Leaders from European and North American nations convened last week in the nation’s capital for the 2024 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit to discuss international security and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The war has opened up many questions for national and Indigenous leaders on how to respond to rising tensions in the Arctic.
The summit marks the 75th anniversary of the military alliance, which formed in response to the perceived threat of communism following the end of World War II.
Meanwhile, Arctic sea ice is currently melting at an alarming rate. This has spurred an increase in military and commercial activities, sparking concerns of greater instability. Indigenous peoples and nations are assessing collaborative efforts with each other and national governments to secure the region as they face climate change and a changing political climate. “Out of a total of 4 million inhabitants of the Arctic, approximately 500,000 are Indigenous Peoples,” states the Arctic Council.
According to the secretary of defense representative in Europe and the defense advisor for the U.S. Mission to NATO, Rachel Ellehuus, “NATO is a defensive alliance, not an offensive alliance.” This means NATO’s primary purpose is to defend against and deter political violence, including war. However, some anti-war groups, such as the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, argue NATO’s presence in eastern Europe will inevitably instigate conflict.
During the Cold War, nations like the U.S. and the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic were on a quest to expand their petroleum reserves, leading both to make large discoveries in the polar region. The race for fossil fuels continues today, as Arctic nations seek to tap into new oil and gas deposits, most of which are offshore.
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As sea ice melts, these reserves become easier to access. A 2008 report from the United States Geological Survey estimated the Arctic contained approximately 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil, about 13 percent of Earth’s undiscovered conventional oil. It also estimates the region holds 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered conventional natural gas.
Ellehuus says Russia and China may also be working to take political and economic control over the Arctic. The Kremlin announced a bilateral agreement to strengthen economic partnerships with the People’s Republic of China in March 2023.
“Increasingly we are concerned about increasing Russian activity in the region,” Ellehuus said. She also noted an increase in Chinese investments. “Even if those Chinese investments look like they are commercial in nature, we do worry about the impact they could have on the environment and the livelihoods of Indigenous peoples.”
The Arctic region is heating up faster than any other region on Earth due to global human activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2023 annual Arctic Report Card. The administration also notes record loss of sea ice every year for the last 17 years. These changes are directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels for energy production.
Similarly, the World Meteorological Organization predicts that in the next five years, it is highly likely global temperatures will temporarily exceed the threshold of 1.5°C warming compared to pre-industrial temperatures set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Since 2010, NATO has recognized climate change as a significant threat to international security. Ellehuus says the alliance has continued to engage with the issue at this year’s summit. “Both climate change and energy security, which is one of the ways that we prevent further climate change, are big topics,” she said.
As major operators of military equipment, NATO has the potential to make salient changes to curb disruptions of the fragile Arctic climate. Ellehuus says, “if the Department of Defense of the U.S. or NATO allies make a change here it really creates a new standard and could have a real impact on reducing emissions.”
Many Indigenous peoples, however, fear increasing activity in the polar region could have serious consequences for their territories and lifeways, particularly around issues of land use.
Rune Fjellheim, Saami, is a senior advisor at the Saami Council — a non-governmental organization representing Saami people in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. (ICT will use the English spelling of Saami as preferred by the Saami Council.)
The Saami Council, along with five other Indigenous non-governmental organizations, advises the Arctic Council — an intergovernmental organization including Canada, The Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, The Russian Federation, Sweden, and The United States. Other Indigenous groups, or permanent participants to the council, include Aleut International Association, Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich’in Council International, Inuit Circumpolar Council, and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North.
Fjellheim says the war in Ukraine has seriously limited the work of the Saami Council, as well as the Arctic Council which paused operations for six months in 2022.
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“One of the concerns we have had on the Nordic side of the collaboration has been that we don’t want to put our friends and brothers and sisters on the Russian side in any danger,” he says. “They have got new laws that forbid them to collaborate with Westerners, so-called.”
He tells ICT Saami people living within the Russian Federation have faced heavy scrutiny and surveillance. Additionally, severe sanctions imposed on Russia by NATO allies and partners immediately hindered the Saami Council’s operations in the country. Notably, the council was prevented from paying employees living in Russia, and their ability to travel and communicate with one another was seriously limited.
“We had built this new collaboration with our brothers and sisters in all four countries over 30 years and suddenly we found ourselves in a situation where the border was closing down again,” Fjellheim said, reflecting on the fall of the so-called Iron Curtain at the end of the Cold War. “We could no longer collaborate as we usually did and that created a very difficult situation for us. So, we agreed that we would put our collaboration on hold, not end it. Because we are still one people.”
The Arctic is a very vulnerable region, and Fjellheim says this kind of collaboration is of paramount importance to ensuring any new activity is carried out “in full understanding and cooperation with the Saami people in the region.”
One of the biggest issues is land use and free, prior and informed consent. Military and infrastructure projects require land, opening up a potential threat to Indigenous communities and their traditional economies based on subsistence. Fjellheim says while they aren’t seeking to militarize the high north, “[The Saami] understand the need for making sure that we have a strong and safe security situation.”
This means working with other Indigenous groups like the Inuit Circumpolar Council and other permanent participants to the Arctic Council, as well as the United Nations representatives from Arctic countries.
ICT didn’t receive comments from the Inuit Circumpolar Council after multiple media requests in time for this story to be published. ICT also contacted Aleut International Association, the Arctic Athabaskan Council, and the Gwich’in Council International, but didn’t receive a response. The United Nations also did not respond to a request for comment.
While NATO does not have a formal military presence in the Arctic, its members like Denmark and Norway do. Ellehuus notes an increase in Greenlandic and Faroese representation saying, “There is definitely a deliberate effort by those Arctic nations to make sure that Indigenous peoples do have voice in what’s going on and also that they are a part of the conversation about the security challenges facing the Arctic.”
Ellehuus also explains that NATO is most concerned with the European Arctic, focusing their attention on the gap between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, as opposed to Alaska and the Bering Sea. The U.S. does, however, carry out some training and defense activities in Alaska as a part of its own military operations.
Fjellheim hopes Arctic nations will think of Indigenous peoples as collaborators. He says members of the NATO alliance can learn from Norway’s dialogue with the Saami Parliament, “Having a good dialogue with the people that actually stems from the region and actually knows the region should be regarded as an asset and not treated as a problem that you just run over.”
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