Alexander Sergunin - Russia in the Arctic: Hard or Soft Power?

This book resulted from various research and educational pr o jects. In 1993, 1996 98 and 2000 2003 several projects on Ru s sian polic ies in Northern Europe were implemented with the ge n erous grant support of the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (COPRI). We remain indebted to the late Professor Hkan W i berg, ex-Director of COPRI, who played a key role in launching and executing the above-mentioned projects by being its principa l consultant and by providing us with useful advice at all their sta g es. We also extend special thanks to Pertti Joenniemi, Senior R e search Fellow, COPRI/DIIS and Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland , for his extensive and insightful comments and suggestions during our work on the projects.

In cooperation with the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) and Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) a series of research projects on Russia ' s relations with the Arctic and non-Arctic actors has been implemented in 2010 2014. These projects have been particularly helpful in understanding Russia ' s national interests in the High North as well as specificities of Moscow ' s b i lateral relations with various regional players. A deeper insight in Russia ' s Arctic policy making has also resulted from these r e search activities. One of the projects with RIAC was of an educ a tional character and resulted in producing a three-volume anthol o gy/reader on Arctic politics as well as course syllabus and teac h ing manual based on this publication.

In 2012 2013, the project titled " The Arctic: avoiding a new Cold War " and funded by the International Discussion Club " Va l dai " has been implemented by an international team under the leadership of Prof. Lassi Heininen, University of Lapland. Some ideas that have been generated and discussed in the context of this project are now reflected in this book. Particularly, we are grateful to the project team for testing the theoretical approaches applicable to the Arctic politics and Russian foreign policy beha v ior.

Since 13 a project titled " Arctic Urban Sustainability in Ru s sia " run jointly by t he Barents Institute at the University of Troms ( Aileen A Espritu ) and George Washington University ( Marlene Laruelle and Robert Orttung ) is being implemented with our parti c ipation. It was especially helpful in understanding the role of the Russian subnational units in the country ' s Arctic policy making.

Our participation in the Global Arctic project launched in 2014 and run by the Thematic Network on Geopolitics and Security ( Prof. Lassi Heininen ) has provided us with a global vision of the Arctic and new approach to human security in the region .

It is a pleasant duty to mention here our gratitude to many co l leagues who have helped us with especially useful adv ice or m a terials for this book. They include: Prof. Rasmus Gjedss Berte l sen, Barents Chair in Politics, and Piotr Graczyk, University of Troms-The Arctic University of Norway ; Dr. Rob Huebert, Un i versity of Calgary, Canada; Prof. Tapani Kaakkuriniemi and Dr. Hanna Smith , Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki; Prof. A l exander Kubyshkin, St. Petersburg State University; Prof. Roar Kvam, Trondheim Business School, Norway; Gunnar Lassinantti, ex-Project Leader, Olof Palme International Center (Stockholm); Professor Marina Lebedeva, Chair, Department of World Politics, and Prof. Lev Voronkov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO); Prof. Kari Liuhto , Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland; Dr. Natalia Loukacheva, University of North British Columbia, Canada; Arild Moe, Acting Director, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway; Dr. Ingmar Oldberg, Senior R e search Fellow, FOA (National Defen s e Establishment) and Sw e dish Institute of International Affairs ; Mikhail Rykhtik, Director, I n stitute of International Relations and World History (IIRWH), Niz h ny Novgorod State University (NNSU) ; Professor Poul Wolffsen , Roskilde University (Denmark) ; Jian Yang , Vice-President, Baozhi Cheng and Pei Zhang , Research Fellow s , Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, China ; Dr. Gleb Yarovoy, Petrozavodsk State University, and Dr. Andrei Zagorsky, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sc i ence .

We are thankful to a number of research cent e rs and instit u tions the School of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University; Department of Political Science, Higher School of Ec o nomics , St. Petersburg campus; IIRWH NNSU; the Department of International Relations & Political Science, Nizhny Novgorod Li n guistic University, Russia; COPRI/DIIS, Denmark; S tockholm I n ternational P eace R esearch I nstitute , Sweden; Aleksanteri Inst i tute and Department of Politics, University of Helsinki , which pr o vided us with excellent research environments and warm hospital i ty. Without their liberal support and help this work was not poss i ble.

Alexander Sergunin

Valery Konyshev

St. Petersburg State University, Russia

J ul y 2015