Russia and the Arctic’s Security Environment: Military Modernization or Militarism?

Although there are currently no indications of conflict in the Arctic, Moscow's attempts to strengthen its assets and military positions in the region have been interpreted largely as militarism by Western media and political think tanks. However, all Russian strategic documents emphasize on Russia's economic profits being gained through the resources and routes of the Arctic and do not refer to any particular military threat in the region. This literature is to assess the nature of Moscow’s military presence and expansion in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation, in order to discover its relation with two concepts of military modernization and militarism. Therefore, the author tries to find out the nature of the presence and expansion of Russian military capabilities in the Arctic over the past decade has mainly been based on military modernization or militarism, and its reasons. The basic findings prove that the nature of the presence and expansion of Russian military capabilities in the Arctic over the past decade have been due to Moscow's strategic goals (including defending its sovereignty in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation against NATO, supporting economic interests and shipbuilding and benefiting them, and formalizing the role of Russia as a major power); based on military modernization and not militarism. Using descriptive-analytical method and relying on a defensive-invasive dualism under the theoretical approach of neo-realization, the author tries to tell why the research findings provide an answer to the research question.