China and the Arctic: great power competition, security and regional responses

Catch up on our webinar covering China’s security and diplomatic engagement in the Arctic, and exploring commensurate regional responses.

China’s rise and its geopolitical, economic and normative implications have increasingly been felt in the Arctic. Describing China as a “near-Arctic state”, Beijing has gradually levelled up the importance of the Arctic in its overall grand strategy. The event focuses on the security implications of China’s growing presence in the region. Apart from traditional inter-state relations between China and regional states, especially Russia, and NATO members, including the US, the event also covers hybrid and emerging areas of international security, including space and cyberspace and the Arctic’s role in these developments. As such, the panel aims to contribute to constructive regional responses to China’s growing importance in these domains.

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China and the Arctic

This webinar was held on Thursday 21 October 2021.

The panel is part of the events series, China and the Arctic: Climate Change, Security and Governance, which assesses China’s environmental, geopolitical, and economic and normative influence in the Arctic to provide actionable advice for considered and holistic policy responses for regional stakeholders, the UK and their partners. The events series is a joint initiative of LSE IDEAS China Foresight and the Arctic University of Norway (UiT). The recording and podcast of the first event, China and the Arctic: Critical Minerals, Environmental Politics and Climate Change, can be accessed here. Access the recording of the third panel "China and the Arctic: energy finance, history and regional governance" by clicking here.

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is Professor of Security, Peace and Conflict Studies at the Centre for Peace Studies, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She specialises in theories of security, in particular the contestation between “everyday” security (including ontological and human security) and state security perceptions. She examines perceptions of security in contexts of the Arctic, civil-military intervention (such as in Afghanistan), and hybrid threats and warfare.

Mariia Kobzeva holds a PhD in Political Science and is a postdoctoral fellow in Global Arctic studies in the Department of Social Sciences, at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Mariia focuses on Sino-Russian relations in the Arctic amid the new balance of power, as well as on Russian and Chinese foreign policies. She is a member of the War and Peace Dynamics group at UiT. In 2021, Mariia received the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship grant (MSCA-IF) for a research project on Arctic security regime adaptation, starting in fall 2022.

Marc Lanteigne is an Associate Professor of Political Science at UiT: The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, specialising in China, East Asia, and Polar Regional politics and international relations. He is also chief editor of the Arctic news blog Over the Circle, and his current research includes work on the comparative politics of non-Arctic states, including in the Asia-Pacific, within the Arctic policy sphere.

Meet the chair

Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen is Professor of Northern Studies and the inaugural Barents Chair in Politics at UiT-The Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø). He is a Danish national, who grew up in Reykjavik and has a deep personal and professional commitment to the North Atlantic and Arctic. Rasmus studied in Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Geneva, Lausanne and Amsterdam. His PhD is from the University of Cambridge with a year at Sciences Po. Rasmus was postdoc at Harvard, United Nations University (Yokohama) and Aalborg University. His main research interest is transnational flows of knowledge, talent and resources between the West and East. Rasmus directs the workpackage developing European science diplomacy theory and strategy in H2020 InsSciDE. Rasmus is on sabbatical at Sorbonne University for 2020-21. He coordinates the Norwegian-Russian PhD course Society and Advanced Technology in the Arctic and the Norway-EU Science Diplomacy Network.

Meet the moderator

Christopher Coker is Director of LSE IDEAS and former Professor of International Relations at LSE.

Event hashtag: #LSEUiTChina

LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it.