So much is written about the developments pertaining to Ukraine, but one crucial theater of tension between Russia and the West remains underreported: the Arctic and the wider High North, as visible in Norway, a founding member of NATO. Despite a recent visit by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) delegation to Norway — led by Major General Andrei Kudimov, who smiled for the cameras as both sides discussed “cooperation” on border control and fishing rights — Russo-Norwegian relations are, as a matter of fact, deteriorating fast.

Despite those talks, NATO has been conducting large-scale military exercises off Norway’s coast. Moreover, the United States reportedly deployed advanced reconnaissance and P-8 submarine-hunting aircraft into Norwegian territory, flying missions uncomfortably close to Russia’s northwestern frontier. The symbolism is clear enough: whatever “dialogue” exists between Moscow and Oslo, the military logic of deterrence — and provocation — still dictates the Atlantic agenda.

The Arctic, long portrayed as a realm of scientific cooperation and peaceful exploration, has quietly become the new crucible of Great Power competition. I have previously argued that the next confrontation between Russia and the West may well unfold not in Ukraine or Syria, but in the frozen North — where NATO’s overreach could ignite unprecedented tensions. That observation now seems increasingly on point.

Russia, for its part, has been revising its Arctic strategy, with new emphasis on military readiness and control over the Northern Sea Route — a shipping corridor that could transform global trade as the ice........

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