‘De-Securitising the Arctic’ in Climate Change: An Indian Perspective Bipandeep Sharma Abstract The rapidly transforming Arctic has led to rethink the concept of security in the region. The increasing global warming and opening up of the Arctic have brought multiple geopolitical issues before the Arctic and non-Arctic states. 1 In pursuit of their perceived geopolitical, geo-economics and strategic interests, a race to ‘securitise the Arctic’ has started amongst the major Arctic states.This process of securitisation appears to be dictated and driven not only by traditional military- strategic considerations but also by non-traditional security threat dilemmas related to energy, environment, sustainability, human security, connectivity, etc. As the old and the new Arctic challenges are being taken out of the realm of ‘normal politics’ and placed in the contested domain of ‘security politics’, the Asian states, that are directly or indirectly impacted by the changing Arctic, realise that securitisation of the Arctic is leaving little space for addressing common issues of global concern. This study argues that all these emerging issues (otherwise perceived as ‘security threats’) in the Arctic, instead of being addressed in the securitisation framework, could and should be approached and addressed as compelling reasons for mutual cooperation and thus in need of de-securitisation. Keywords Climate change, de-securitisation, geo-politics, India’s Arctic, securitisation, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Introduction The Arctic is witnessing unprecedented physical and geopolitical transforma- tions. There is no single formal definition of the Arctic because the region reveals multiple identities when considered from multiple perspectives. Geographically, the Arctic is defined as a region above 66° 33’ North of the Arctic circle. 2 It is also defined as a region north of the Arctic tree line, marked by a frozen landscape of India Quarterly 1–20 © 2021 Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india DOI: 10.1177/09749284211047721 journals.sagepub.com/home/iqq Article Corresponding author: Bipandeep Sharma. E-mail: deepbipan1@gmail.com