New PhD to study where geopolitics hits the ground in the Arctic

‘We talk a lot about what the High North means for Norwegian security. I want to turn that perspective around and ask what security policy looks like from the North,’ says Winther.

Since joining the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in 2023, she has organised major security conferences, published academic research and co-authored a book on Arctic governance and geopolitics. She will now become a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), while remaining based at FNI.

Elana Wilson Rowe will be her main supervisor at NMBU, with Pål Wilter Skedsmo as supervisor at FNI. The PhD is funded through several FNI research projects, while Winther has developed the PhD project itself.

An Arctic she did not recognise

Winther grew up in Tromsø in Northern Norway. Years later, as an Arctic researcher, she found herself comparing the North she knew with the one being discussed at international conferences such as Arctic Circle Assembly and Arctic Frontiers. Something began to bother her.

‘The Arctic being presented there was not an Arctic I recognised. And I am from the Arctic!’

Much of what shapes everyday life in the North seemed to receive relatively little attention.

One example came when her FNI colleague Tor Håkon Inderberg, whose research focuses primarily on energy and climate policy, spoke about electricity at Arctic Frontiers.

‘I thought: This is what people locally care about! Electricity! He is not part of our Arctic research group, and our Arctic group hardly talks about electricity.’

Yet energy, roads, ports and other infrastructure are closely connected to both security and emergency preparedness.

‘There have to be roads. There have to be boats. The boats have to run. The roads have to be maintained. These are basic conditions for people to be able to live in the North in the first place.’

At the same time, what may appear as high-level geopolitics from the outside can be part of ordinary life for people living in the region.

‘People in the North have to get used to military exercises, hearing shooting during exercises, or suddenly seeing a submarine in the fjord. There is NATO, there are fighter jets, and there is everyday life. I am interested in how security policy sits right in the middle of everyday life in Northern Norway.’

The periphery and the security-policy centre at the same time

This is where Winther's PhD project begins. She will study how security policy is understood and discussed locally in the North. Her research will include analyses of news coverage and documents from local political processes, supplemented by interviews with politicians, military personnel and journalists.

One assumption she wants to examine is whether local and national security perspectives may be closer than much of the international discussion about the Arctic suggests.

`The High North is both periphery and a security-policy centre.`

‘Local security policy can be more hard-line than people assume. Local actors also ask for investment in hard security in the North.’

But separating security interests from other local interests is not always straightforward.

‘Are people responding to a security threat, or to the prospect of more jobs? Is it security policy or regional policy? That can be difficult to determine.’

For Winther, this is also what makes the Arctic an interesting case for studying international politics more broadly.

‘When international politics takes an interest in Arctic states, it is not really Oslo, Ottawa or Washington that it is interested in. It is the areas far to the north.’

Major decisions may be taken in national capitals, but many of their consequences are felt locally.

‘This is where military activity is increasing, where railways, roads, energy infrastructure and emergency preparedness are needed, and where people experience the consequences of security policy in their everyday lives.’

Major security decisions may be taken in national capitals, she points out, but much of what they entail happens locally.

Finding her own niche

The PhD builds on a research interest Winther has developed during her first three years at FNI.

Even before formally starting at the institute, she joined FNI's annual staff seminar. On the drive there with FNI researchers Andreas Østhagen and Svein Vigeland Rottem, the conversation turned to her future as a researcher.

‘They told me I needed to find my own niche. Something I could really make my own as a researcher and feel confident about, and then build outwards from there.’

They also had a suggestion: hardly anyone had studied the Arctic Mayors' Forum from a research perspective. Local actors and governance in the North could become her niche.

It proved a good fit.

Winther has since published academic articles and book chapters and co-authored An Introduction to Arctic Governance and Geopolitics with Østhagen. She has also played a central role in organising FNI's annual Arctic Security Conference.

‘I have been given an incredible amount of encouragement at FNI to step outside my comfort zone and do things I find really scary. People here trust that you can do things you have never done before. And that is how you learn.’

She has worked particularly closely with Østhagen, Research Director Arctic and Ocean Politics at FNI, becoming something of his right hand.

‘Andreas has brought me into so much of what he does. I have benefited enormously from working so closely with him.’

That has also shaped how she thinks about research.

‘He has taught me how important it is for research to be relevant and to reach people. That has real value in itself. And I have probably also been influenced by how strongly he thinks about security as a dimension.’

From right hand to left hand

Winther will remain part of FNI's Arctic research environment while formally enrolled at NMBU.

‘At FNI, I have my everyday working environment and the Arctic research community. At NMBU, I get a large university environment and a broader academic community for working with theory and methods.’

Being surrounded by PhD candidates from other fields also broadens her academic circle.

‘It is good to be reminded that the Arctic is not the centre of the universe,’ she smiles.

And after three years of juggling research, conferences, outreach and project work, she is looking forward to something that has often been in short supply: time.

‘I designed this project myself. I have both an academic and a personal interest in finding out whether my hypotheses and assumptions hold up.’

She will still contribute to FNI research projects and the Arctic Security Conference, although there will be somewhat less travelling. Winther became a mother last year.

‘I travelled all over the place last year, to Canada, Iceland and elsewhere. Now I will have to say no a little more often.’

Her role alongside Østhagen will change too.

‘I am going from being Andreas' right hand to being his left hand.’

For someone who once doubted whether an academic career was even open to her, starting a PhD is a significant step. And her advice to her younger self?

‘Take courage. You do not need to have everything figured out, or to have made all the “right” choices along the way. There may still be a path for you.’

Text: Anna Valberg