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72. Ice Islands in Canadian Policy, 1954-1971
- Author:
- Adam Lajeunesse
- Publication Date:
- 09-2015
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Ice islands are large rafts of multi-year ice that are carried by currents around the Arctic Ocean. They became politically significant in the early 1950s when American and Soviet research parties began occupying them. This activity called into question their legal status and highlighted the uncertain nature of polar maritime jurisdiction. This volume tracks the evolution of Canadian policy vis-à-vis ice islands and examines how the politics surrounding these bodies influenced the country’s broader position on Arctic maritime sovereignty.
- Topic:
- Climate Change and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Canada
73. The Advisory Committee on Northern Development: Context and Meeting Minutes, 1948-66
- Author:
- P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Daniel Heidt
- Publication Date:
- 09-2015
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The Advisory Committee on Northern Development (ACND), a high-level interdepartmental committee, was responsible for coordinating federal Arctic policies and programs from 1948-1971. The minutes of its main meetings provide unparalleled insight into how high-ranking civil servants in Ottawa grappled with what they perceived to be the most pressing issues of the era, including Canadian-American relations, sovereignty, security, Aboriginal affairs, socio-economic development, scientific research, and governance. As this volume reveals, the ACND represented an early example of the “Whole of Government” approach to policy deliberations, revealing the myriad activities that constituted the “Arctic revolution” during this pivotal quarter-century.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
74. Arctic Security Order: Collective Security, Collective Defense, or Something New?
- Author:
- Sten Rynning
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The melting of ice in the Arctic has mobilised considerable analytical interest in the region. New resources such as minerals, fisheries, and oil and gas, as well as new sea lines of communication become available, promising to connect Asia and the Atlantic more intimately and efficiently. On this, there is widespread agreement. The implications are more difficult to gauge, though, as the underlying order is in flux. It is not clear what kind of era this opening of the Arctic is heralding.
- Topic:
- Communications
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Atlantic Ocean
75. Arctic Security - An Equation with Multiple Unknowns
- Author:
- Rear Admiral Nils Wang
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- In May 2008, the five Arctic coastal states - the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and the Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands - signed the Illulissat Declaration. The declaration established that the 'Arctic Five' will lay claim to the sea territorial rights awarded to them by the 1982. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and that they will settle disputes within the framework of existing international law. This was a very strong message to NGOs and external state actors, arguing that a protective treaty should govern the Arctic, just like the Antarctic.
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Japan, China, Canada, India, Norway, Denmark, United Nations, and Italy
76. Understanding The Arctic Council: A 'Sub-Regional' Perspective
- Author:
- Alyson J. K. Bailes
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The international architecture of the circumpolar Arctic region is unusual in several ways. All countries directly involved – Canada, the USA, Russia and the five Nordic nations, who are also the states members of the Arctic Council – are regarded in other contexts as part of a 'Euro-Atlantic' nexus, and all belong to bodies like the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Yet the classic Euro-Atlantic institutions have so far barely engaged with the new issues created by the opening up of the region though ice melting. NATO does not have an Arctic policy as such, while the OSCE itself and the Council of Europe have been only marginally involved. The European Union has a de facto presence in several dimensions (climate management, the energy market, shipping, research and monitoring etc), but has so far failed to secure the status of an observer at the Arctic Council.
- Political Geography:
- Russia, America, Europe, Canada, and Nordic Nations
77. China's Growing Interest in the Arctic
- Author:
- David Curtis Wright
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- China started being actively interested in Arctic affairs in 2007, and since that time its interest has become manifestly obvious to the international community. Even if 'The Arctic is not destined to become a priority of China's foreign policy,' China seems firmly convinced that in the future, and perhaps the not-too-distant future, the Arctic will become the economic crossroads and geopolitical pivot of the globe, the central point of contact and communication between the three regions that run the world and the world's economy; these are, not in any particular order, East Asia, North America, and Western Europe. It will remain much more concerned about this than about climate change, although China does note the effect of climate change on China. As I have written elsewhere, 'China seems to see the overall effect of Arctic climate change as more of a beckoning economic opportunity than a looming environmental crisis.'
- Political Geography:
- China, East Asia, North America, and Western Europe
78. The European Union - An Arctic Actor?
- Author:
- Andreas Østhagen
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- In the context of rapidly growing interest in the Arctic, a wide range of actors, from non-Arctic states to NGOs, have been forced to re-think their own relations to this remote region. The European Union has also started a process of legitimising itself as an Arctic actor and laying the groundwork for its own Arctic policy. A seminal moment was the European Commission's communication in November 2008, which outlined the first points to be considered when developing an EU Arctic Policy.
- Political Geography:
- Europe
79. The Quest for Resources - the Case of Greenland
- Author:
- Bent Ole Gram Mortensen
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The importance of resources for any country does not require much introduction. History is filled with exhaustively described examples of where the need for access to various kinds of resources – drinking water, agricultural land, various minerals – has been geopolitically important and has even led to war. War strategies themselves can be affected by the need for access to resources. Germany's and Japan's needs for oil and World War II are prime examples.
- Political Geography:
- Japan and Germany
80. The "new" Arctic - the Military Dimension
- Author:
- Paal Sigurd Hilde
- Publication Date:
- 03-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- In the last two decades, a scholarly and popular debate has emerged about the salience of geography in shaping the foreign and security policies of states. On one side of the debate, we find the perspective that globalisation, driven by technological evolution, has made geography all but irrelevant. This argument, often termed the "End of Geography" argument, emerged in the 1990s and was strengthened by the post-9/11 identification of international terrorism as the prime threat to international security. Not only was the world ever more interconnected economically, but also threats were a-geographic, partly by virtue of coming from non-state actors.
- Political Geography:
- Europe