ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that international institutions for managing the resources, transport lanes and natural environment of Arctic provide crucial means for enhancing security of Arctic states and communities. It examines various concepts of security, and warns against usages that may mask the important substantive differences between various 'softer' types, like societal or human security, and traditional 'hard' state security. 'Hard' security strategies, based on military combat capabilities to protect a state from existential threat, predominated in Arctic politics from the Second World War to the mid-1980s. 'Soft' security measures have gained prominence; these typically involve the creation or operation of international institutions that do not deal primarily with military threats, but aim instead to make military capabilities less threatening. The chapter explores some implications for Arctic governance and regional security, especially concerning interplay among international institutions and patterns of involvement within them. The term 'governance' derives from Greek kybernetes, with etymological links to navigation and helmsmen.
