Bangladesh, Sept. 14 -- For decades, the Arctic was treated as a place where even geopolitical rivals could find reasons to cooperate. Scientific research, environmental protection, maritime safety, indigenous communities and economic development dominated the conversation. The frozen north was strategically important, certainly, but it was not automatically viewed as another battlefield in the confrontation between Russia and the West.

That era may be ending.

According to Irina Strelnikova, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Arctic Studies at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, European NATO members are increasingly seeking to reshape the Arctic as a component of their broader security architecture-and, in the process, redu...