The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance

243 Pages·2017·1.76 MB·English

by  Jennifer Arthur

The Arctic Council and

Circumpolar Governance

ONE

ARCTIC

Edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer,
Heather Nicol, and Wilfrid Greaves
One Arctic
© The authors, 2017

CANADIAN ARCTIC CENTRE ON FOREIGN POLICY
RESOURCES COMMITTEE AND FEDERALISM
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http://carc.org/ Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G3
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Lackenbauer, P. Whitney, Heather Nicol, and Wilfrid Greaves, editors
One Arctic

Issued in electronic format.
ISBN: 978-0-9684896-4-2 (pdf)

Page design and typesetting by P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Cover design by P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Cover photos by P. Whitney Lackenbauer
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Foreign Policy and Federalism

Please consider the environment before printing this e-book
The Arctic Council and
ONE ARCTIC
Circumpolar Governance

Edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer,
Heather Nicol and Wilfrid Greaves

2017

One Arctic

Acknowledgements

Several contributors participated in a workshop, One Arctic? The United
States and the Arctic Council, hosted at the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars in Washington in April 2016, which explored the history of
institutional capacity-building in the region, the explosion of Arctic Council
issue areas, the transition of the Council Chairmanship from Canada to the US,
and the role of sub-national governments and organizations in Council
activities. This workshop was possible thanks to the generous support of: the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Connection Grant program; Trent University, the School for the Study of
Canada and Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies; the
University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies,
Future of Ice initiative, and the Global Business Center in the Michael G.
Foster School of Business; the World Policy Institute, New York City; and
Western Washington University's Canadian American Studies Centre. Other
chapters grew from a panel on the Arctic Council at the Understanding
Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic conference co-hosted by the
Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History and the Centre for
Foreign Policy and Federalism at the University of Toronto in January 2016.
We acknowledge the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Connection Grant program (award
number 611-2015-0038), St. Jerome’s University, the Graham Centre, and the
Network of European Union Centres of Excellence.
Thanks to Rob Huebert, Ed Struzik, and anonymous reviewers for their
feedback on the collection, as well as research assistant Corah Hodgson at the
Centre on Foreign Policy & Federalism for providing a thorough, final copy
edit of the page proofs.
One Arctic
One Arctic

Contents

Introduction by P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Heather Nicol and Wilfrid Greaves . i
1. The Arctic Council: Between Continuity and Change by Małgorzata (Gosia)
Śmieszek and Timo Koivurova ................................................................... 1
2. Leadership from the Chair: The Experience of Three Successive
Chairmanships of the Arctic Council by Douglas C. Nord ....................... 27
3. Conceptualizing “One Arctic” as the “Canadian Arctic”? Situating Canada’s
Arctic Council Chairmanship (2013-15) by P. Whitney Lackenbauer ...... 46
4. Understanding Canada’s Role in the Evolution of the Arctic Council by
Andrew Chater ......................................................................................... 78
5. Environmental Security, Energy Security, and the Arctic in the Obama
Presidency by Wilfrid Greaves ................................................................ 101
6. Is A Melting Arctic Making The Arctic Council Too Cool? Considering the
Credibility, Saliency and Legitimacy of a Boundary Organization by Jennifer
Spence .................................................................................................... 126
7. One Arctic … But Uneven Capacity: The Arctic Council Permanent
Participants by Jim Gamble and Jessica M. Shadian ................................ 142
8. Ukiuqta’qtumi Hivuniptingnun – One Arctic, One Future by Nadine C.
Fabbi, Jason C. Young, and Eric W. Finke .. Error! Bookmark not defined.
9. International Relations Theory and the Evolution of the Arctic Council by
Daniel Pomerants ................................................................................... 179
10. The Arctic Council and the “One Arctic”: A historic stocktaking of some
circumpolar challenges, dilemmas and inconsistencies by Willy Østreng . 191
Contributors ................................................................................................ 206
Index ........................................................................................................... 211
One Arctic
Lackenbauer, Nicol, and Greaves - Introduction
Introduction
P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Heather Nicol and Wilfrid Greaves

Eight countries make up the Arctic: the Kingdom of Denmark,
Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the United States and
Canada. And nothing would be worse than each of these countries
trying to exploit the maximum instead of working with the other
countries to promote responsible stewardship. Nothing could be
worse than militarization based on mistrust between these countries
that are neighbours.
The Arctic Council is the way to create cooperation among eight
countries that cling strongly to their sovereignty … Also at the
table, and this is crucial to the Council’s success, the Indigenous
Permanent Participants—from Canada, the Inuit Circumpolar
Council, the Gwich’in Council International and the Arctic
Athabaskan Council, as well as the Aleut International Association,
the Saami Council and the Russian Association of Indigenous
Peoples of the North.
In the words of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, words later
borrowed by the current U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council,
the aim is, and I quote, “One Arctic: shared opportunities,
challenges and responsibilities.
-- Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, Parliamentary Secretary to the
Canadian Minister of Global Affairs, 29 September 2016

Since its founding through the Ottawa Declaration in September 1996,
the Arctic Council has, to quote the U.S. State Department (2011), evolved to
become “the preeminent forum for international cooperation in the Arctic.”
The eight member Council is the key intergovernmental body for regional
cooperation in addressing environmental and sustainable development
challenges in the circumpolar north, and plays a vital role in conveying Arctic
perspectives to other international and global organizations. Although a high-
level “discussional and catalytic” venue rather than a political decision-making
i