Mikhail Gorbachev's famous speech held in Murmansk in 1987 is among the turning points in northern international politics. In it he proposed extensive disarmament in the north and invited open discussion on a new policy of joint industrial development and international research cooperation on the Arctic. He envisioned a transformation of the High North from a heavily guarded militarized zone of secrecies, a potential theatre of war, to a ground where the interests of northern countries should be articulated in open negotiations and implemented by all towards goals of common interest: peace, the development of economic growth and commerce, environmental protection, extended rights for indigenous peoples and improved quality of life for all northerners.

On 11th January, 1993, the cross-border cooperation of the Barents Region was formally initiated by Norway under foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg. Participation in this had been approved by the foreign ministries of all the nations involved but the delineation of the Barents Region is based uniquely on the voluntary association of the counties on all sides of the northern borders of Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden. Barents cooperation encourages local institutional and individual endeavour to cooperate for the purpose of common good.

The Barents Regions is inhabited by 5,9 million people and covers an area of 1 755 800 square kilometres. Its northern coast faces the Barents Sea, which contains some of the World’s most productive and important fishing grounds. The climate of the region is sub-arctic, it contains vast natural resources of minerals, natural gas and oil that are contributing significantly to global markets, and which will do so even more in the future. Scientific estimates on the magnitude of the hydrocarbon deposits of the continental shelves of the Arctic varies between one-quarter to one-fifth of the planet's reserves. The delineation and division of this shelf for industrial purposes between the arctic coastal nations are to a large extent still unsettled.

Other scientific predictions are that by 2040 the total cover of summer ice in the Arctic will be no larger than the surface of Greenland. The consequence of global warming will be devastating and the emission of further carbon dioxide to the atmosphere need to be counteracted, seen in an Arctic maritime perspective however the diminishing sea ice adds a new prospect of commercial sea traffic through the Northwest and Northeast Passages, the latter mainly referred to as the Northern Sea Route connecting the north Atlantic with the Pacific by way of Arctic coastal seas and the Bering Strait.

All this adds up to a complex future with risks for international confrontation, or at least competing interests, over classic border issues, and regarding rights to exploit the resources of the sea and sea bed. There is demand for further research on the old and new international, national and indigenous agents and business groups that are and will become active in the north. There is likewise an urgent need to analyse and discuss the opportunities for new alliances, common interests among these entities, and, based on this, to envision what are the real and perhaps new long-term national interests. This should be based on state-of the-art research approaches that take into account the interests of minorities and that of sustainable management of nature, regions and peoples.

This theme is addressed in the following research activities of the Barents Institute:

• In Urban Wråkberg's project in the international research programme BOREAS
• In the research of BAI visiting researcher Fujio Ohnishi
• In the research of BAI Visiting Professor of Northern Securities Lassi Heininen

It has been discussed by BAI researchers and others in these debate articles:

• Jessica Shadian, “Searching for the Indigenous Voice in a New Arctic Scramble: Berlin Conference Part II or a New Global Politics?,” E-International Relations, February 20, 2008. URL: http://www.e-ir.info/?p=354
• Jessica Shadian & Daniel Fjærtoft, "Norges Rolle, Sett Fra Nord," Aftenposten 16th August 2007

It was part of the theme of the 2007 Calotte Academy, a Finnish-Norwegian-Russian travelling series of workshops focussing the New Northern Dimension EU policy. The proceedings of the 2007 Calotte Academy are to be published shortly. Climate change and northern geopolitics is the central topic of the up-coming 2008 Calotte Academy. Northern geopolitics has been put into perspectives also in the following conferences co-organised by the BAI:

• "Russia and Norway: The Past and Present," round table discussion held at the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, on 8th June 2007, arranged jointly by the Russian Academy of Sciences, Oslo University, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies and the Barents Institute.
• Norwegian-Russian conference "International Relations in the North of Europe and Barents Region" held in Murmansk 19-20th May 2007. It was organised in collaboration between the Russian Federal Agency of Education, Murmansk State Pedagogical University (MSPU), Russian Academy of Sciences, University of Tromsø and the Barents Institute. The Abstracts from the conference have been published by the MSPU and the proceedings are forthcoming from the press of that university.
• "Energy and Dispute Management in the Barents Region," European Conference held in Brussels 26th September 2006 based on BAI cooperation with the Madariaga European Foundation and the EastWest Institute. The proceedings were published in 2007: Greg Austin & Marie-Ange Schellekens-Gaiffe, eds., Energy and Conflict Prevention, Anna Lindh Programme on Conflict Prevention: 2007 Edition (Hedemora: Gidlunds, 2007). 268 pp.

BAI scholars are collaborating on developing proposals for the following research initiatives that squarely address issues of northern geopolitics: 

• Geopolitics North – actors, interactions and implications for Norwegian interests
  A joint proposal of Bodø University College, Ocean Futures AS, Oslo University, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies and the Barents Institute sent in to the "Geopolitikk-Nord" call to competition for funding from the Norwegian Research Council in 2008.
• Northern Securities (NEG)
  Another programme under development for funding is called “Northern Securities.” The main aim of the ”Northern Securities” research network is to analyze and draw up ”a holistic picture” of the current geopolitical situation and importance of the Eurasian North at the beginning of the 21st century. The core group of this initiative is at the BAI (Wråkberg, Espiritu), University of Lapland (Lassi Heininen), Tromsø University (Gunhild Hoogensen) and Bjørn Gunnarson, School of Alternative Energy at the University of Akureyri, Iceland.