The Canadian government's response to Arctic security challenges

¶ … National Security

The Canadian government's response to Arctic's security

The Canadian government is one of the powers that have exercised their sovereignty and security strength in matters of the Arctic. In the Canadian Arctic, the governance system has done enough to ensure its borders are well protected through a peaceful process of devolving territories from the ever evolving arctic region. The government of Canada has been effective in securing its place in the arctic region, and the federal government hardly diminishes sovereignty of Canada as a state when it transfers power to the major territories; Nunavut, the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Descriptions of Security issues in the Arctic

One of the fundamental issues that faced the arctic region during the cold war was more of economic and political that social. Arctic is indeed one of the richest regions in terms of minerals such as gas, oil, nickel and many others. Extractions, mining processes and exploitation of energy have been practiced since the beginning of the cold war, with the state powers fighting to gain economically from the Arctic. Powers like Russia and the States fought for economic gain in the region, to strengthen their abilities during periods of war. Canada was involved as they tried to acquire their territories in the Arctic. Despite the potential of the arctic, there are many hindrances including accessibility to mining sites, and ever since the cold war period, states that were interested had to indulge the indigenous people for assistance. However, currently with the increased temperature rates, the icebergs continue to melt creating chances for infrastructure development hence better accessibility networks (Yalowitz, Collins & Virginia 12).

Immediately after the Cold War, concepts of security have transformed practically and theoretically. Unlike the time of the cold war, where security was based on aspects of military ability and state defense against opposition from other states, the nuclear weapon developments rapidly changed the nature of security in a tremendous way. Currently, though, diminishing of the military forces has been noted, and new developments have been realized based on human security concepts. The states that had an interest in the arctic now started to consider the security of citizens rather than that of the state. This led to the conceptualization of institutions and international norms such as agreements and treaties. Citizens whose rights and freedoms were infringed could access justice hence enjoying security. Also, in the 90's, at the peak of issues relating to degradation, academicians and policy makers used that as an indicator of security in the Arctic region. However, the whole issue of security revolved around international co-operation (Huebert 3).

Measures taken by Canada after the war

The military power existence was now fully diminished. The ancient paradigms, which based on military influence, were long gone, and many alternatives were realized, which better procedures and processes had compared to military forces. There was a different approach to matters of security and the states no longer protected themselves only, but also their citizens. Nations and analysts started to consider environmental threats in the Arctic. The argument was that nuclear weapons could lead to an intense destruction of the environment and the physical destructions would be unbearable to a certain extent. The analysts continued to note that the nations that insisted on nuclear weapon development would lead to a deadly exchange that would affect, negatively, the entire human life. The pollutions caused by the weapons, both when used and in the early processes of manufacture, were also a threat to the human life. The entire states were subject to the environmental degradation that just few nations still insisted to practice. Despite controversial opinions, the facts of human threat remained realistic (Huebert 3).

Later in the early 1990's the measure of human security was developed. Human security entailed both cultural and health securities. Health security focuses on the hazards which result from community actions, and obligations of the international community and the responses that protect human security. The civil society was expected to behave in certain ways that were in favor of the health conditions of the human races. Cultural security, on the other hand, dealt with means of making sure the lifestyles of different communities remained the same. This was important for the indigenous persons of the Arctic region, whose lives were threatened by globalization (Huebert 4).

Evidently, the end of the cold war just reduced the security issues affecting the Arctic region. The security threats are still experienced up-to-date. The foremost concerns include the issues of terrorism, nuclear deterrence and nuclear defenses. Countries such as Russia and the United States just reduced their nuclear deterrence forces, but hardly eradicated them altogether. The United States and Canada have been ever concerned since the incident of 2001 (September 11). The concern revolves around terrorist attacks that the North American region could be used as an entry point for terrorists, because the entry points of the Southern parts are currently strengthened.

Conclusion

With the current situation, it has been peaceful, and there is hardly any security problem emerging in the Canadian Arctic. However, the potential for a disaster still remains. Canada, as a sovereign state, has a task to ensure it builds an effective response framework that will counter in case of foreign intrusions and many other situations that may call for emergency responses. An example is the Search and Rescue (SAR) incident. There is also a possibility of either external or domestic attacks targeting resistance of gas and oil pipelines. Canada should, therefore, consider the existence of a security threat and develop realistic measures to counter that, appreciate the fact that the Arctic is acutely vulnerable to possibilities of infiltration and also take advantage of the harsh environment in the higher parts of the Arctic, which may lead to security advantage (Teeple 60).