Northern Policies of Arctic Countries - The Arctic: Realist Strategic Theatre or New Cooperative Precedent? (original) (raw)

Abstract

This dissertation will seek to analyse the respective positions of the five ‘Arctic states’ and their policies with regard to the High Northern latitudes of the planet. These five states are Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the USA. Each one of these states has specific and unique characteristics that define and develop their respective policies. This dissertations maintains that whilst the Arctic as a geopolitical space attracts the attention of individuals and organisations from around the world it is fundamentally and undeniably altered and interpreted by these five states and their respective capabilities beyond the influence or ability of any and all other entities save nature. This dissertation does not seek to interpret or deconstruct the legitimacy of states or their right to exist although the relationship between the entity of the state and the Arctic as the natural physical world is observed in the Introduction. From analysis grounded inside the real and functional paradigms of state power and its projection inside the physical space of the Arctic this paper seeks knowledge in interpreting what is important to the ‘Arctic Five’ and how their outlooks, policies and actions have shaped and will shape the Arctic. This dissertation recognises two established and mainstay theories of international relations namely: Realism and Liberalism. The purpose and aim of this paper is to determine with good evidence and reason the nature of state relations within the Arctic and if the political precedent adheres to one theory over the other. However the argument and analysis followed should not entertain exclusion of either theory or discount the value afforded by other, revisionist, readings of international relations theory. Without complication the goal is to identify which pattern takes precedent in the Arctic: state driven strategy or new cooperation. Each of the five Arctic states is taken as its own unique case. Each state has coastline within the Arctic Circle and every state is researching and planning submissions to the Commission on Continental Shelf Extension under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, although the states interact and acknowledge each other’s presence and rights within the Arctic each has evaluated the space in a different way. Therefore each state specific chapter looks at the core driving factors behind each state’s Arctic policy and behaviour. These variables are extensive and do not lie easily within traditional political or economic paradigms. This reality renders well the difficulties of Arctic study in the frame of broader, global geopolitical analyses. The finite and delicate environmental nature or the region promotes the constant of uncertainty that has matriculated from scientific/climatic analyses to underpin technological, economic, political and social realities at all levels. Parallel to this is the reality of empty space. The Arctic is barely inhabited and state frameworks, both tangible and theoretical, easily perish in such an unforgiving and remote environment. This paper also includes a chapter on the impact of UNCLOS and the Arctic Council in the region. These forums hold particular and specific relevance to the Arctic and have been prevalent in the respective state policy formulations. Both provide international windows in the Arctic. The Arctic Council is heavily referenced in Arctic policies and viewed as a legitimate forum for state interaction and understanding in the Arctic. UNCLOS also provides a legal framework consistent with normative international law that has led to a previously unseen level of bathymetric data collection as states attempt to map out the possible extent of their underwater continental shelves for submission to international law and the creation of recognised sovereignty and the natural hydrocarbon wealth this entails. Scientific research and finding in the Arctic is extensive and much publicised. This paper will not seek to interpret or drawn down findings from these beyond an understanding that the Arctic is threatened by, and overtly vulnerable to, climate change, that the ice cap is shrinking and that human exploitation of the High North may take a substantial and irreversible toll on the fragile environment there. These realities provide the framework, structure and analysis of this dissertation accordingly. Any form of political analysis of the Arctic will inherently focus on the Arctic Five states as the region’s ‘power containers’ (Giddens). Their interaction and operation in the High North is our medium of understanding.

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