Reflections on sustainability, security and resilience in the Arctic

The viability of sustainable development is often premised on a positive economic outlook and technical feasibility within a stable regulatory environment. However, research has revealed that many core empirical challenges to sustainable development in the Arctic are rooted in systemic issues with origins far beyond the region. These challenges include the blurriness of responsibility relating to the concept of sovereignty, fractured governance that fosters competition between political interests, and conflicts over land uses driven by competing economic and cultural interests. Addressing these issues requires acknowledging the hierarchies of inequality and clarifying responsibility to facilitate a pivot on subjects of justice. Through this, we emphasise that a rebalancing in the distributional, procedural and recognitional aspects of justice is essential for nurturing the foundations for sustainability, security and resilience in the Arctic region, and for framing directions in future research.