Geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of climate change in the Arctic region: the future of contestation and cooperation

Abstract The geophysical transformation of the Arctic has kick-started a process wherein new resources and sea routes are getting uncovered. These present significant economic opportunities for not just the regional communities and states, but even for countries, which are geographically far removed from the region, like India and China. However, the unlocking of these new opportunities also requires the resolution of regional territorial disputes, both old and new. Although countries are working toward numerous cooperative mechanisms at the bilateral, multilateral, and regional levels to deal with these issues, the persisting security dilemma is also pushing them to militarize the region at a fast pace. Meanwhile, the expanding number of stakeholders in this region—be it states, both regional and extra-regional, transnational communities like indigenous groups or nonstate entities like private corporations—have been adding multiple and complex layers of narratives in the discourse on the regional geopolitics. An attempt has been made here to explore the intricacies of these geopolitical dynamics that have emerged with the geophysical changes underway in the Arctic.