In The Shadow of Diesel Protests, a 200-Year-Old Border in The North

There is quite the distance between Hungary and the community center in Kirkenes, Northern Norway, where I am currently participating in an event that marks that 200 years have passed since the border between Russia and Norway was established. The community center is packed to the brim of people eager to know more about Norway’s youngest and Russia’s oldest border.

Blind zone

A border project that is barely mentioned in Norwegian school books. There is still a blind zone starting in Trondheim, or Nidaros, if you will.

A history not just about a border, but also a border people. Especially the Skolt Sami, which were separated and lost their rights.

My job during the seminar was to look toward the future. An impossible task in a world that no longer makes sense.

Hardly any sciences have terms or analytical methods that allow us to look further into the future than a few weeks or even days.

During the weeks that have passed since I was asked to lecture, Israel has attacked Lebanon and the USA has started a war against Iran.

Wars without any purpose that is recognizable to those who should know about such things.

Unappetizing threesome

Therefore, I am sitting in the community center, thinking about the recent election in Hungary. A somewhat macabre backdrop, because who could have envisioned the Russian and the American presidents both falling in love with the same European state leader, Victor Orbán? That they would throw themselves into the election campaign of a European country, cheering on the same man?

The development has admittedly taken place over time, but still a both terrifying and unappetizing threesome.

Yet, there is a hope in how a large political majority managed to overthrow Orbán, and therefore also say a clear no to both Russia and the US.

We don’t know much about how Hungary’s new leader, Peter Magyar, will maneuver internationally, but we know that the Hungarian people wanted change. Through a democratic election, they did not just overthrow Orbán, but also Putin and Trump.

Democratic prerequisite

And democracy is precisely a prerequisite for maneuvering in the North as well.

In fact, the most important tools for a possible way forward can be found in the Arctic, first and foremost. With Russia, there is still an energy cooperation, an admittedly struggling fisheries cooperation, a police collaboration, and a Search and Rescue partnership.

And, not least, cooperation within the framework of the Arctic Council.

However, the most important factor for a safe future along the 200-year-old and 197,7-kilometer-long border is the people who live there. Or as the eminent historian Einar Niemi said during the border seminar:

“Buildings and settlements are the most important border protection.”

He also underlined that the threat landscape mirrors the international situation, defined by politicians and diplomats outside of that same area.

A national recognition of the difference between the North and the South, especially after Russia’s war against Ukraine, is crucial for the trust in democracy and institutions.

And we would just have to live with how diesel protests make a greater impression on the parliament.

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