Public lecture

Press release — 28 November 2013

Professor Alexander Sergunin from the St. Petersburg State University/Higher School of Economics (Russia) will give a public lecture entitled

IS THE ‘ARCTIC AGE’ COMING? MYTHS AND REALITY

on 5 December 2013 from 12.00-14:00 at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Lossi 36 room 304.

The purpose of this lecture is to discuss whether the Arctic will be really a key region for the future (globalized) world or not. Are its vast natural resources crucial for the future world economy or are Arctic oil and gas deposits overestimated and of less significance because of the ‘shale gas revolution’ in the U.S.? Will Arctic sea routes (Northeast and Northwest passages) be accessible and internationalized or still risky and tightly controlled by Russia and Canada? Will the international competition for the Arctic degenerate into a regional arms race and military tensions or will regional players manage to transform the High North into a ‘zone of peace and stability’?

Alexander Sergunin is Professor of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University and Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg campus) where he teaches international relations theory, security studies and world politics. His recent publications include Contemporary International Relations Theories (Moscow, 2013); The Military Strategy of the Contemporary State (St. Petersburg, 2012); Immanuel Kant’s International Relations Theory (Nizhny Novgorod, 2012); Laboratories of European Integration: City-Twinning in Northern Europe (Tartu, 2012); The Arctic in International Politics (Moscow, 2011); The EU-Russia Common Space on External Security: Prospects for Cooperation (Nizhny Novgorod, 2011) .

The lecture is organized by the Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu.