27 March 2026 | 09:00 - 15:00 CET
Open Session - ON SITE ONLY
Room: Mødelokale 1.1
Organiser: Elizabeth Parry (Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies; USA); Christine Duprow; Kelsey Frazier
Session Description:
The rapid growth of maritime commerce in the Arctic is increasing the region’s exposure to vulnerabilities that intersect with both human security and grey zone threats. Grey zone threats—actions by state or non-state actors that fall below the threshold of conventional warfare—can undermine sovereignty, stability, and well-being by exploiting societal weaknesses without triggering traditional defense mechanisms. In the Arctic, these threats may manifest through disruptions to essential services, erosion of trust in institutions, targeting of Indigenous and marginalized communities, and circumvention of local governance structures.
Building on findings from previous Ted Stevens Center (TSC) human security workshops, which identified key indicators across governance, infrastructure, economics, food security, and environmental dimensions, this session will conduct a gap analysis of tools used to address human-security-related grey zone threats in the Arctic.
The workshop will employ a human-centered design (HCD) approach in two stages. Activity 1 will utilize an importance/difficulty matrix to rank research gaps by their significance and feasibility for operationalization into actionable projects, producing a prioritized list of gaps most ready for implementation. Activity 2 will guide participants through collaborative HCD exercises to transform these priorities into concrete research proposals and ideas.
The outcome will be a set of innovative, tangible research topics that can be operationalized to strengthen human security in the Arctic and address the unique challenges posed by grey zone threats in a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape.