PhD Course "Security in the Arctic" in Kirkenes
The four-day intensive PhD course took place at the Barents Institute in Kirkenes and brought together young scholars and teachers from various disciplines, including historians, political scientists, peace researchers and representatives from local- and regional governance and media.
The topics of the course involved issues of migration - including the challenges met at Storskog and the role of Arctic states in the "migration crises" - extractive industries - including mining in Nikel - tensions between economic and environmental security as well as contested perceptions of security as told and experienced by and in the periphery (North Norway) and the centre (Oslo) regarding Russian threat levels towards Norway.
The proximity to the Norwegian-Russian border made it possible for participants to better understand and explore how this "cold frontier" plays out in the local, regional, national and international arenas – as well as in the everyday lives of ordinary people on all sides of the borders in the High North.
Photo: Benjamin Schaller
The course concluded with the public panel discussion "Finding a balance - Deterrence and détente in the 21st century", organized by UTSYN - Forum for utenriks og sikkerhet. The panel discussed the importance of the right balance between deterrence and détente for today’s strategic in a changed European security environment as well as finding this balance implies for Norway. The panel consisted of Eldar Berli, former Chief of the Northern Brigade in the Norwegian Army, Benjamin Schaller, Research Fellow at the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS), Lars Georg Fordal, Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat and Alexander Sergunin, Professor in International Relations, St.Petersburg State University. The discussion was led and moderated by Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Professor at the Centre for Peace Studies (CPS).
Photo: Hedda Bryn Langemyr
