Former CAS Director Willy Østreng featured in High North News researcher profile
High North News has recently published an in-depth researcher profile of Willy Østreng, former Scientific Director of the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS), highlighting his long academic career and his latest scholarly work on Arctic geopolitics.
Østreng is a Norwegian political scientist specialising in international politics, with particular emphasis on the Arctic and the Polar regions. In an interview published in High North News this week, he reflects on the publication of his two-volume work The Geopolitical Arctic Ocean — a five-year project released earlier this autumn that places contemporary developments in the Arctic Ocean in a broader historical and political context.
The book examines how rapid environmental change in the world’s northernmost ocean is reshaping geopolitical dynamics, opening new sea routes, resource opportunities and security concerns, while raising fundamental questions about international cooperation, conflict and sovereignty - not least in relation to Svalbard and Norway’s unique responsibilities under the Svalbard Treaty.
Looking back, Østreng describes how his engagement with Arctic research began almost by chance, when, as a young student at the University of Oslo, he became intrigued by questions surrounding Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard. What started as a master’s thesis topic later developed into a lifelong scholarly focus, shaping a career that has spanned the Cold War, periods of international cooperation, accelerating climate change and today’s renewed great-power rivalry in the North.
In the interview, Østreng also reflects on the broader purpose of research, emphasising the need for interdisciplinary approaches and clear language. He argues that geopolitics should not be reduced to conflict and violence alone, pointing instead to the role of international law and cooperation in shaping political outcomes in the Arctic.
The full researcher profile is available via High North News.