International cooperation in the Arctic region and the Northern Sea Route: sustainable development, challenges and prospects

This project is a logical continuation and development of the first international project "The Arctic as a zone of cooperation and a zone of competition", successfully implemented by the School of International  Regional Studies in 2021/2022. The new 2022/2023 project is focused on the research direction and is international, regional and interdisciplinary one. It is implemented in cooperation with the University of Oslo (Norway) (UiO), School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University (India), Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and the Arctic Economic Council.

The Arctic has been and remains one of the most interesting international regions, both in terms of its constituent institutions and the nature of the interaction of countries within it. Up until the beginning of 2022, cooperation in the Far North seemed to be one of the most stable among all possible. But the current geopolitical trends bring with them a number of new challenges that raise the relevance of international cooperation in the Arctic to a new even higher level, and stimulate the search for an optimal model of cooperation in the Arctic region.  The current geopolitical situation is characterized by the urgency of building flexible formats of interaction. The appearance on the world political map of a significant number of centers of power, differing in the degree of development of information technology, military, and economic potentials, creates additional requirements for leading players in the field of maintaining stable ties, including in the Arctic region. In turn, the importance of the Northern Sea Route continues to grow every day, and even opinions are beginning to meet that in the near future it will be able to compete with such serious international transport corridors as the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.  At the same time, to date, many issues related to the effective management of the resources of this region, issues of environmental safety and conservation of this region, issues of the international legal regime of both the Arctic itself and the Northern Sea Route are still largely open and debatable.

The project format allows students not only to develop multilaterally and gain experience in writing scientific texts, but also helps to establish contacts with colleagues from Russian and foreign universities. Project participants can work both individually and in collaboration with each other.

Since the project is not only international, but also interdisciplinary, students can choose any topic related to legal, environmental, economic, political and other aspects of the functioning of this region for their scientific research. 

Within the framework of the project, participants will prepare a literature review on the proposed issues; will have the opportunity to listen to lectures by invited speakers-specialists in the field of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route; will make a presentation on selected research areas and prepare scientific publications.

 The project will result in two international round tables where the project participants will present the results of their research to a group of scientists and experts from Russia, Norway, Iceland and other countries

The project will be implemented in Russian and English language.

The purpose of this project is to conduct scientific research in the field of political, economic, environmental, legal and other issues related to the Arctic region, its history and place on the geopolitical map of the world and in the system of international relations, as a result of which students will develop knowledge and research skills in the field of the Arctic region and the Northern Sea Route. The implementation of the project will contribute to the strengthening of international scientific ties between Russia and foreign universities and international organizations, as well as the acquisition of experience by students in conducting international scientific projects.