Arctic Security Conference navigates a fracturing region

The Fridtjof Nansen Institute’s Arctic Security Conference returns on September 18 with a one-day program built around state and political security and a theme that feels ripped from this year’s fault lines: managing polarization and fragmentation.

“The main disturber and main threat is definitely Russia in the Arctic. But we’re also pointing to a bit more fragmentation between the western Arctic states,” explains conference organiser and researcher at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute Iselin Németh Winther.

That tension runs through the agenda: sessions map where alliances are straining, where local and national priorities clash and how outside powers are shaping choices in the North.

“The main aim of the conference is to talk about security,” Winters says. “By keeping the topic more narrow so we can actually have a fruitful discussion.”

Winther cautions against declaring a geopolitical rupture. Long-standing institutions still anchor the landscape even as rhetoric rises and small rifts show among partners.

“It’s a difference, but we still have all these institutions like NATO. At the end of the day, we’re still allied. So it’s more like a bumpy road than that the picture has shifted completely,” she claims.

One signature choice this year is to juxtapose non-Arctic perspectives with hyper-local ones. A dedicated “outside” block brings in India and the EU to test how global trends wash into northern security, while another session zeroes in on local dynamics inside Arctic states. Organizers also note a change from last year’s lineup — no China-based academics this time.

“We have one session only about the outside perspective,” she says. “We want people from India and the European Union to talk about how global trends are affecting the region.”

The program plans to puncture familiar myths; the Arctic as either pure cooperation or unbridled great-power contest  and push back on the idea the region is ungoverned or “up for grabs.” A media-narratives discussion asks whether louder headlines are starting to shape risks, not just describe them.

“Both narratives are exaggerated. The Arctic tends to be treated as this ungoverned place, when in reality the ocean is already divided between [Arctic states],” Winters says.

Expect a format that favors substance over ceremony. Seats are essentially gone with digital participation still available.

“You should be expecting Arctic experts from all around the world, speaking nitty gritty about very specific issues. We’re trying to keep official remarks to a minimum,” Winters says.

At this year’s conference the curtain goes up on a focused security check-in that keeps Russia at the center while stress-testing Western cohesion, brings in outside and local lenses and insists on specifics over slogans.