Since 2007 studies regarding the changing Arctic region and its wider geostrategic effects are undertaken at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). The climate change in the Arctic is an important accelerator of these changes and several follow-on effects will emanate from this.
As the ice-sheet in the Arctic Ocean melts, many of the fundamentals of the region are affected. Areas studied by the FOI include:
- Transoceanic Sea Lines of Communication through the Arctic are becoming more and more accessible.
- The vast energy and mineral resources in the region will become possible to extract.
- Changing sovereignty in parts of the region.
- Overlapping territorial claims and management according to the law of the sea.
- Changing military-strategic preconditions.
- State and non-state Arctic actors in the region and outside it.
- The effects of increased human activity in the region.
These areas develop according to their own speed and internal logic, which makes developments harder to predict. Some changes may either reinforce or cancel each other out. The resulting effects of these large-scale global changes will affect many of us.
The Arctic studies at FOI are undertaken on behalf of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Swedish Ministry for Defence, and other Swedish government agencies. Cooperation is carried out with several other study projects and programmes at the FOI on a regular basis. The studies also include substantial international cooperation and exchange.