Includes bibliographical references and index.

Russia's Arctic policy and the interplay of domestic and international. Discursive production and decision-making mechanisms ; Russia's decision making regarding Arctic affairs ; The Arctic as a flagship for Putin-style statehood ; An internationally recognized "brand" for Russia ; The Arctic, a soft power tool for bilateral relations? -- A territory or an identity? The Far North in Russia's statehood. The imperial and Soviet memory of the Arctic ; What administrative status for Arctic regions? ; Indigenous peoples as marginalized stakeholders? ; The nationalist reading of the Arctic: Russia's new Lebensraum -- Russia's spatial and demographic challenges. Archipelago Russia : a fragmented territory ; Russia's demographic puzzle ; Evolving patterns of Arctic demography and mobility ; Is migration the future of the Arctic workforce? -- Climate change and its expected impact on Russia. Framing climate change debates ; Climate change in the Arctic ; Climate change in the Russian Federation ; Calculating the impact of climate change on the Russian economy ; Russia's domestic actors on climate change ; Russia's hesitant climate change policy -- The Russian stance on Arctic territorial conflicts. The Soviet historical referent: the 1926 decree ; Russian claims on the Arctic continental shelf ; The Russian-U.S. agreement on the Bering and Chukchi seas ; The issue of the Barents Sea issue and its solution ; The dispute over the Svalbard/Spitsenberg Archipelago -- Projecting military power in the Arctic. The Russian army still lost in transition ; Upgrading the Northern Fleet and the nuclear deterrence ; Russia's renewed military activism in the Arctic -- Resource nationalism vs. patterns of cooperation. Beyond the metrics of the "Arctic bonanza" ; Russia's oil and gas strategies in the Arctic ; The costs and risks of an Arctic-based energy ; Foreign actors and the Russian state: competition or cooperation? ; The Arctic as a mineral Eldorado? ; Hopes for reviving the fishing industry -- Unlocking the Arctic? Shipping along the Northern Sea Route ; Sovereignty issues in the Russian straits ; Hopes for an international trade lane via the NSR ; Ice without hype: the harsh realities of Arctic shipping ; A more realistic future: NSR as a domestic/destination route ; Modernizing the fleet and the shipyard sector -- Conclusion.