Since the early 1970s oil and gas development has gradually come to dominate the industrial sector in the Arctic. The pace of development has increased significantly in recent years as the price of oil and gas has risen, motivating industry to travel further north to extract fossil fuels for global consumption. Increasing pressure from various governments—Russian, Norwegian, Canadian and American—require the Arctic to be open for business. Increasingly, Arctic communities are being tied into the global market for oil and gas, putting pressure on their individual and societal capacities to cope with change, participate in resource management decision-making, and secure any possible economic and social benefits. As such, the urgent pace of such development poses critical challenges to the human security of communities, affecting local economies, traditional livelihoods, health, food, and the environment. At the same time traditional securities are increasing in pressure from sovereignty issues to reducing dependencies upon Middle East oil and gas supplies.

A growing body of research and policy work on human security already exists. However, little work to date has been conducted on the unique challenges to human security in the Arctic context.