Arctic Communication System Development as a Factor of Guaranteed Access Maintenance to Strategic Resources

Abstract

The development of new technologies, reducing the economic and physical costs of access to the unique resources of the Arctic, has simultaneously identified a set of interrelated economic and geopolitical problems arising during the Arctic territory development. Therefore, the subject of research of the article is the problem of the Arctic communication system formation, without which the further development of the region is not possible. The authors tried to substantiate the priority directions of the development of the communication system of the Arctic region with the aim to ensure continuous mobile access to strategically significant resources of the region in the current economic and geopolitical tendencies. The article proves that the main task of developing the Arctic should be to ensure the sustainable development of the Arctic region, which can not be achieved without the formation of an adequate level of a system of transport communications which meets the set goals and objectives of the development of the territories. Limited resources with a significant amount of required initial capital investment require an informed choice of priority investment areas, “points of growth” of the system of communications formed. The main conclusion is that the provision of operational access to the strategic resources of the Arctic is impossible without further development of the transport communications system in the region, and first of all the marine transport infrastructure (in particular, the Northern Sea route). At the same time, the impact of the redistribution of traffic flows on various aspects of the region's livelihoods, including the labor market and the social sphere, requires a separate study.