Arctic Narratives and Geopolitical Competition

Auerswald, David P.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-45005-2_15

David P. Auerswald²

Part of the book series: Frontiers in International Relations ((FIR))

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3 Citations

Abstract

Arctic governance debates—and the competing narratives used in those debates—have been bounded by geopolitical calculations and constraints. For most of the last 30 years, climate realities and early U.S. and Russian geopolitical red-lines constrained the realm of the possible in the Arctic. Within that acceptable range, however, narrative debates over Arctic governance have been driven by less powerful Arctic states and non-state actors. More recently, the U.S. and Russia have been joined by China in a narrative contest pitting governance vision against governance vision, with less powerful Arctic states caught in the middle. Today’s great powers appear set on a unilateral, competitive narrative. The question remains whether the pooled geopolitical power of European Arctic states can be merged with a compelling multilateral narrative, or if instead the region mimics great powers’ recent unilateralism.

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Notes

1.
Mitchell (2009). See also Posner and Goldsmith (2000).
2.
Dimitriu and de Graaf (2016, 6). One interesting question is how narratives fit into national role conceptions. For a review of that literature, see Brummer and Thies (2015).
3.
The focus of this paper shares some similarities to that of Wilson Rowe 2018, 59, who notes that “resting powers structure only in broad strokes the room for manoeuvre in the region at key junctures, but their preferences are difficult to ignore”.
4.
For the definitive discussion of events leading to the Arctic Council’s creation, see Young (1998). The 1996 Ottawa Declaration text is available at: http://www.international.gc.ca/arctic-arctique/ottdec-decott.aspx?lang=eng, accessed 7 March 2016. Details of the council’s structure and processes were finalized in the 1998 Iqaluit Declaration, https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/86.
5.
For a text, see: https://www.barentsinfo.fi/docs/Gorbachev_speech.pdf, accessed on 8 March 2016.
6.
Interview with Ambassador Jukka Valtasaari, Helsinki, Finland, 23 September 2015; interview with senior Finnish Foreign Ministry official, Helsinki, Finland, 23 September 2015.
7.
Fenge and Funston (2015: 3–4). See also Chater (2015: 58–60).
8.
Chater (2015: 65–66). Interview with Dr. Arne Roksund, Deputy Secretary General in the Norwegian Ministry for Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Oslo, Norway, 2 December 2015.
9.
Discussions with U.S. Arctic Council representatives, 2013. See also Chater (2015: 67), Wilson Rowe (2018: 68–69).
10.
See: http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/doctrine/research/nss.pdf, accessed 7 March 2016.
11.
Those institutions could help realize the international promise of improving great power relations while helping decrease international and domestic uncertainty. Remember that on the latter front, the early 1990s saw a rise in civil wars, as exemplified by famine and warlords in Somalia, civil war in Bosnia, and genocide in Rwanda, as well as high profile terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center (1993), the Tokyo subway (1995), Oklahoma City (1995), and the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (1996).
12.
Interview with Norwegian Arctic Council official, Oslo, Norway, 5 November 2015.
13.
Wilson Rowe (2018: 91, 97); Atle Staalesen, “The Arctic will make us richer, says Putin,” The Independent Barents Observer, 16 December 2017, https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2017/12/arctic-will-make-us-richer-says-putin; the 2013 Strategy for the Development of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation and National Security until 2020; and the 2009 Foundations of the Russian Policy in the Arctic until 2020 and Beyond.
14.
Examples include the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission, the 1980 fishing quota agreement between Norway and Iceland, and the 2014 agreement between Norway, the Faroe Islands (Denmark) and the EU.
15.
For an example, see Borgerson (2008). This perception was heightened by U.S. Geological Survey (2008).
16.
Struzik (2010) For an interesting treatment of the role of transnational organizations in international organizations, see Tallberg et al. (2014).
17.
See European Parliament, RC-B6-0172/2009, 26 March 2009, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&reference=B6-2009-0172&type=MOTION, which followed Document RC-B6-0523/2008, 30 September 2008, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B6-2008-0523&language=EN; both accessed 9 April 2016.
18.
Fenge and Funston (2015: 15). See also Koivurova and Molenaar (2010).
19.
Interview with Dr. Arne Roksund, Deputy Secretary General in the Norwegian Ministry for Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Oslo, Norway, 2 December 2015.
20.
Interview with senior Norwegian foreign ministry official, Oslo, Norway, 2 December 2015.
21.
The A-5 met in Ilulissat, Greenland at the request of Danish Prime Minister Per Stig Moller and Greenland’s Prime Minister Hans Enoksen. For a text of the Ilulissat Declaration, see www.oceanlaw.org/downloads/arctic/Ilulissat_Declaration.pdf. For a review of the declaration’s effect, see Dodds (2013).
22.
Countering the perception of a land-grab free-for-all raised by the Russian flag-planting episode was one reason the Danes called the Ilulissat meeting. Interview with senior Danish Foreign Ministry official, Copenhagen, Denmark, 25 April 2016.
23.
Interview with Ambassador Arni Thor Sigurdsson, Reykjavik, Iceland, 9 November 2015.
24.
For a text, see “Iceland Protests a Meeting of Five Arctic Council Member States in Canada,” 18 February 2010, https://www.mfa.is/news-and-publications/nr/5434, accessed 10 March 2016.
25.
Ossur Skarphedinsson, “Address to the Althingi,” 14 May 2010; and interview with Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson, Reykjavik, Iceland, 10 November 2015.
26.
“Parliamentary Resolution on Iceland’s Arctic Policy,” 28 March 2011.
27.
Interview with Ossur Skarphedinsson, Reykjavik, Iceland, 10 November 2015.
28.
For examples, see: Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, “Speech at Finnish-Russian Arctic Partnership,” 5 June 2012; Interviews with Finnish embassy officials, Washington, DC, 4 September 2015; Interview with senior Finnish Member of Parliament, Helsinki, Finland, 23 September 2015.
29.
Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, “Finland’s Strategy for the Arctic Region 2013,” 23 August 2013: 43.
30.
Interview with Mr. Jaakko Savisaari, CEO of Atlas Elektronik, Helsinki, 21 September, 2015.
31.
Carl Bildt, “Speech on Arctic Challenges,” 17 May 2012.
32.
Interview with Karin Enstrom, former Swedish Defense Minister, Stockholm, Sweden, 10 December 2015; interview with former Swedish Arctic Council representative, Stockholm, Sweden, 9 December 2015; interview with Ambassador Teppo Tauiainen, head of the America’s Department at the Swedish foreign ministry, Stockholm, Sweden, 11 December 2015; interview with Swedish defense officials, Stockholm, Sweden, 10 December 2015.
33.
Interview with Ambassador Gustaf Lind, former Arctic Ambassador for Sweden from 2010 to 2014, Stockholm, Sweden, 8 December 2015.
34.
Interview with Foreign Minister Lene Espersen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 27 April 2016.
35.
Interview with senior Norwegian Foreign Ministry Official, Oslo, Norway, 2 November 2015; interview with former Swedish Arctic Council representative, Stockholm, 9 December 2015.
36.
“Interview with Espen Barth Eide,” Spiegel Online, 26 October 2012, accessed 22 October 2015.
37.
http://english.gov.cn/archive/white_paper/2018/01/26/content_281476026660336.htm.
38.
https://arctic-council.org/index.php/en/about-us/arctic-council/observers.
39.
https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2019/05/291512.htm.
40.
https://arctic-council.org/index.php/en/about-us/arctic-council/iceland-chairmanship.
41.
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-arctic-greenland/greenlands-courting-of-china-for-airport-projects-worries-denmark-idUSL4N1QP346.
42.
https://www.arctictoday.com/dispute-china-greenlands-airports-worked-way-toward-solution/.
43.
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-arctic-greenland/greenlands-courting-of-china-for-airport-projects-worries-denmark-idUSL4N1QP346.
44.
Barber et al. (2019). https://www.ft.com/content/670039ec-98f3-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36.
45.
“Lavrov: Russia will ensure safety of Northern Sea Route,” UAWIRE, 7 May 2019, https://uawire.org/lavrov-russia-will-ensure-safety-of-northern-sea-route.
46.
Pompeo (6 May 2019).
47.
Pompeo (7 May 2019).
48.
Pompeo, (6 May 2019).
49.
Pompeo, 7 May 2019.

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David P. Auerswald

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Auerswald, D.P. (2020). Arctic Narratives and Geopolitical Competition. In: Weber, J. (eds) Handbook on Geopolitics and Security in the Arctic. Frontiers in International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45005-2_15

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45005-2_15
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