The concept of Neo-liberal security in the Arctic Region

Security is a concept that means "the absence of threats"; it contains the possibility of being protected from danger or feeling safe. Since it has no generally accepted meaning or definition, security is characterized as a controversial concept in the social sciences. After the World War I had finished, security studies was the main focus of the discipline of International Relations. Political events have led to the expansion of the concept of security by causing security to have a broad perspective ranging from the environment to the economy, from the economy to social security. According to Neo-liberalism, which is included in the theory of IR, security is possible by adhering to the rules of international law and being cooperation of international institutions. Within the framework of the Neo-liberal security's understanding, the implementation of security studies for the Arctic region has also accelerated. At the end of the twentieth century, which is suitable to the Cold War period, the Arctic region is an attractive geography for states and even nations to maintain their existence due to the natural resources it has. The increase in access because of the effects of climate changes has attracted the attention of states and has caused states to engage in activities in many fields such as commercial, economic, scientific, etc. In this study, it has been aimed to investigate whether the understanding of Neo-liberal institutional security is present in the Arctic Region. The applicability of Neo-liberalism's argument that cooperation with international institutions and organizations will ensure security in the Arctic has been examined. For this reason, it has been questioned whether the Arctic states are engaged in cooperative activities. Using the qualitative research method available in social sciences, the first national strategy documents published by the regional states in the past, current national strategy documents and international agreement documents were examined. Taking into account the transformation of the concept of security in the 1990s, the strategy documents in question were examined in four areas within the framework of the soft security concept; environment, society, cooperation and security. During this review, it was also aimed to investigate whether cooperation organizations are effective in ensuring security for the region on the basis of Neo-liberal policies. The study, which evaluates how national interests in the region guide security policies towards the Arctic by scanning the national and international security archives of countries, is a first in the Turkish literature in this aspect and aims to contribute to the field.