2,378 research outputs found
Introduction: Theorizing and Broadening Arctic Security—Towards the Environment and Climate
No full textConclusion: The Search for a New Security Paradigm Begins in the Arctic
No full textThis chapter briefly summarizes the objectives of this book, and asks whether a new security paradigm—one that adequately accounts for the threats arising from environmental and climate changes—is on the horizon. We conclude that such a paradigm is not yet available. We remain entrenched in a state-led, international structure that is poorly adapted to address the security implications of climate change, as demonstrated in the Arctic region
Arctic Yearbook 2015 -- Arctic Governance and Governing
No full textPreface - Arctic Governance
Fran Ulmer
“The most important thing for people to know about the governance of the Arctic is that we have a chance now to act to maintain the integrity of the system or to lose it. To lose it means that we will dismember the vital systems that make the Arctic work. It's not just a cost to the people who live there. It's a cost to all people everywhere.” -Sylvia Earle
Governance is “the processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions.”2 In short, it’s the effort to make good decisions for society
Climate Change and Arctic Security:Searching for a Paradigm Shift
No full textThis book assesses the construction of security in the context of climate change, with a focus on the Arctic region. It examines and discusses changes in the security premises of the Arctic states, from traditional security to environmental and human security. In particular, the book explores how climate change impacts security discourses and premises as well as theoretically discussing the possibility for another change, from circumpolar stability into peaceful change. Chapters cover topics such as the ethics of climate change in the arctic, China’s emerging power and influence on arctic climate security, the discursive transformation of the definition of security and the intersection between urban, climate and Arctic studies. The book concludes with the question of whether a paradigm shift in our understanding of traditional security is possible, and whether it is already occurring in the Arctic
Age of Changes:Threat of Climate Change and Its Meaning for Security
No full textClimate change has been increasingly defined as a threat to the security of a wide range of referents objects from individual to the planet and humanity as a whole. Climate change is often seen as the macro-driver of a wide range of other threats that are accelerated by the extent of which the climate continues to change. By adding pressure on the institutional capacities of states, decreasing the quality, quantity and access to vital natural resources, and by triggering large scale migratory movements, climate change is assumed to increasingly foment instability and conflicts, which in turn are seen to deteriorate global sustainable development that forms the very heart of mitigation and adaptation efforts. Regardless of this grown and often alarmist security framing of climate change, ambitious and effective climate policies are still lacking. Traditionally security is conceived as a matter of high politics that is associated with the core values and survival of the state and the legitimization of emergency measures. Military force or balance of power politics and containment have long been seen as the most crucial ways to control insecurity. The threat of climate change is characterized with a new kind of uncertainty and complexity that cannot be successfully secured against through military power and containment. Building on poststructuralist theories, this chapter theoretically analyses how the meaning of security is constructed through hegemonic struggle, and how the interpretations of climate change as a threat or a multiplier of threats affect the understanding of security
Before Climate Change, ‘Nuclear Safety’ Was There:A Retrospective Study and Lessons-Learned of Changing Security Premises in the Arctic
No full textThis chapter is about the environment as a special feature of Arctic geopolitics and security. The focus is on (long-range) pollution, as the first trigger of global changes in the Arctic, and ‘environmental awakening’ as a consequent reaction. This is also a retrospective study on ‘nuclear safety’ in the European Arctic, as a part of ‘environmental awakening’ and environmental politics in the North, and how it caused a shift in security premises of the Arctic states. Discourses of critical security studies - the risk society theory and ecological security - are applied to broaden our understanding of narrow traditional – national, competitive, military – security towards comprehensive one, as well as to analyze and illustrate changes in both Arctic security nexus and Arctic geopolitics
Arctic hydrocarbon exploration & production: evaluating the legal regime for offshore accidental pollution liability
No full textThe Arctic has enormous hydrocarbon potential which is attracting international oil companies to invest, explore and exploit its reserves. Drilling in this region presents infrastructural, technological and environmental challenges with high accidental pollution risks involved. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, there are serious concerns about the effects and legal consequences of a possible major oil spill. This calls into question the adequacy of existing global and regional regulatory frameworks governing accidental pollution, particularly in such important area as oil pollution damage liability and compensation. It is important that an international regime is in place that provides prompt and adequate compensation to the victims of pollution and remedial measures necessary to protect the Arctic environment and innocent third parties. This paper examines and evaluates global and regional regulations pertinent to pollution resulting from offshorepetroleum operations in the Arctic, focusing especially on accident pollution liability and compensation from offshore facilities. A regional intergovernmental framework or an industry-wide compensation scheme would be among the most obvious options in addressing the apparent gap in the existing environmental regime of the Arctic.<br/
The Strength of Flexibility: The Arctic Council in the Arctic Norm-Setting Process
No full textIn the Arctic, the thaw of East-West relations in the 1990s led to deeper regional and sub-regional cooperation, and a strengthening of the stability of the region through the establishment of standards. This led in turn to the formation of a patchwork of standards that overlap and intersect: the proliferation of soft law standards was then the only way to put the states and other stakeholders around the table, in a region that has not yet been cleared of past tensions.Few observers would have predicted that a body which so many limitations would have reached such results in terms of norm-making, considering that the Arctic Council (AC) is only 20 years old. The AC has often been viewed as politically ineffective, with lots of talk but little action on issues relating to its mandates of environmental protection and sustainable development. The AC is very far from being a perfect forum but despite or thanks to its “soft” structure, it offers a large place for local voices, which ensures its legitimacy, and it can better adapt over time by facilitating compromise.This paper explores the central role of the AC in Arctic norm setting, stressing the specificities of the Council among the wide range of Arctic-norm producers, and demonstrating how its successes are linked to its soft law structure, as a major factor of legitimacy and socialization, and finally of normative power in the Arctic. It is the flexibility of the AC that contributes to its strength. Thus, despite the absence of any ‘hard’ power, the AC is the major norm setting instrument in the Arctic
Big Fish in a Small (Arctic) Pond: Regime Adherence as Status and Arctic State Identity in Norway
No full textDespite frequent reassurances that the Arctic region’s regime of governance rests soundly on two mutually reinforcing pillars: the Arctic Council intergovernmental cooperation and the international UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), doubt is still cast time and time again on the durability of Arctic peace and stability. Explanations for the regime’s strength are often based on classical theories of international relations, wherein traditional concepts of power-struggles ensure the relative benefit of state cooperation in the region. However, the case is here made that adherence to the present Arctic regime of governance is not just a matter of material or strategic importance for the eight so-called Arctic states. It is also a matter of status, pride, and identity; indeed, perceptions of a state’s role in the world are a powerful and often underestimated force in determining interstate relations. Examining the specific case of one Arctic state, Norway, the paper explores how a state identity linked to the status granted by the current regime of governance guides political practices. This is done by drawing on a range of interviews with Norwegian state officials. For these, Arctic statehood is tied to political status, leverage, and legitimacy, thereby contributing to a positive selfperception and an advantageous international position. Furthermore, this is linked to pre-existing idea(l)s of ‘essential’ Norwegian history, culture, and values. Thus, through adopting a self-perception founded on the present Arctic regime of governance, the latter is discursively and normatively strengthened and reified, showing the potential potency of a political, state identity
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