O aquecimento global e a geopolítica do Ártico: uma oportunidade para a retomada da hegemonia russa na Eurásia

Abstract

The present work aims to comprehend the Russian strategy towards the Arctic, in order to evaluate whether the geoclimatic changes caused by global warming in this region can generate relevant opportunities for the Russian economic growth that contribute for the resumption of its hegemony in the Eurasian region. In the hypothesis that Russia, as the most influential member of the Arctic Council, endowed with the world’s biggest and most technological icebreaker fleet, can benefit from changes in the geography of that region, both for the exploration of energy resources, such as oil and natural gas, and regarding the opening of new large-scale commercial maritime routes, particularly the Northern Sea Route (NSR), this work starts from a geopolitical analysis of post-Cold War Eurasia to evaluate how the existing potential in the region can contribute to make Russia more relevant in the Eurasian geopolitical chessboard.