Russia’s Arctic Strategies and the Future of the Far North, by Marlene Laruelle

Recent literature on the geopolitical consequences of Arctic climate change has been significantly advanced by Marlene Laruelle’s Russia’s Arctic Strategies and the Future of the Far North. In many respects, it is a book whose time has come. Since the Arctic re-emerged on the global stage following record low sea ice extent in 2007, there has been a succession of rapid-fire publications on the politics of Arctic climate change. Most have lacked the depth, perspective and interdisciplinary approach required to understand the region. Scholarship on Russian posturing in the Arctic has been especially wanting. Laruelle’s book remedies this by examining at length the country at the centre of Arctic geopolitics. Not only is Russia the largest Arctic state in terms of territory, coastline, population and percentage of GDP dependent on the region, but its status as the only non-NATO Arctic rim state makes Laruelle’s book extremely germane to contemporary security discourse.