Red Arctic: Russian Strategy Under Putin [Hardcover]

The Arctic is a global bellwether for climate change and indigenous peoples rights and traditions, as well as a health check on the durability of international laws and norms. Red Artic challenges the widely held assumption that the Arctic is headed for strategic meltdown, emerging as a theater for a literal (new) Cold War between Russia and the West.

Buchanan explains that Putins Arctic strategy relies heavily upon international cooperation with foreign energy firms and injections of foreign capital: conflict will be bad for business. Russia needs a low tension environment to deliver on Russias critical economic interests.

Red Arctic charts Arctic strategy under Putin from how it is formulated, what drives it, and where its going. In cautioning against assumptions of expansionist intent in the region, Buchanan calls for informed judgment of the real drivers of Russian Arctic strategy.

Elizabeth Buchanan is Head of Navy Research at the Royal Australian Navys Sea Power Centre. Dr. Buchanan holds a PhD in Russian Arctic Strategy under Putin, specializes in polar geopolitics and is a Non-Resident Fellow of the Modern War Institute at West Point Military Academy. She is an Affiliate of the US Department of Defenses George Marshall Center.

Buchanan (Modern War Institute West Point) observes that most analyses of conflict in the Arctic read like Tom Clancy ... on steroids (p. viii). Her mission is to put those stories where they belong: in the fiction section. Despite Russia's war in Ukraine and general antagonism to the West, the most remarkable story from the Arctic is how little the Ukrainian conflict has affected a long-standing policy of cooperation and commercial partnerships in the North. Russia needs a stable, orderly Arctica trend reflected from the Cold War to today. This geo-economic realitythe need for continued access to oil and natural gastempers and transcends Russia's ambitions elsewhere. Buchanan examines how Putin molÃ'