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11. Melting Arctic: Implications for the Twenty-First Century

Author:
Ziad Al Achkar
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
The Arctic region has not traditionally been the focus of international politics and world economics; however, recently environmental scientists have flooded the news with the effects of global warming in the region concerning the significant melting ice caps, dramatic ecological degradation, and potential irreversible loss of many species. Climate change is manifesting around the world through floods, ecological degradation, and potentially driving violence and conflict; in the Arctic, all these risks are compounded. The nature of the Arctic pole means that what will happen in the region is guaranteed to have an impact elsewhere. While environmentalists have sounded the alarm about the risks to the environment in the region, there is an ever-growing security danger that faces the Arctic. With ice caps melting and retreating to unprecedented levels, the arctic seabed is now open for nations to explore its reported vast amount of natural resources. This article will identify issues that will shape the twenty-first century of the Arctic. The scope of the article is not meant to be exhaustive of the problems and challenges but offer a thematic overview of the problems. There are three broad categories covered in this article. First, an overview of the changing climate, its ecological and environmental impact, and the challenges of operating in the Arctic. Second, an overview of the economics and international law implications that are a result of climate change and of increased activity in the region. Third, the geopolitics of the Arctic region.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, International Law, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, Arctic, and United States of America

12. The European Union-Greenland relations after 2015 – a partnership beyond fisheries

Author:
Piotr Kobza
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
he introduction of a new, enhanced autonomy status for Greenland within the Danish Realm since 21 June 2009, after the referendum of 25 November 2008, brought about a new chapter in the history of the emancipation of Greenland from Copenhagen. In comparison with the previous status, in force since 1979, competences of the home-rule government in Nuuk were broadened, especially in the domains of jurisprudence, public order and management of the natural reserves. It was recognized that the Greenlandic nation was a subject of the international law with an inherent right to declare independence, which in turn should be respected by Denmark. The financial subsidies from Denmark were to be reduced, and economic dependence of Greenland on the Danish budget – diminished. All these introduced new possibilities for the Greenlanders to shape political and economic development of their island. The purpose of this text is to set out the reasons, ways and methods of the process of deepening relations between the European Union and Greenland, seen against the background of interests and activities of other international actors.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, European Union, and Economic Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Greenland

13. A Useful Pause in Arctic Drilling

Author:
Bruce M. Everett
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Fletcher Security Review
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
Until last year, drilling for oil in the Arctic was the subject of considerable discussion focused not only on the potential impacts of Arctic resources on the oil market, but also on the environmental and geopolitical implications of opening this area to development. Prospects for Arctic drilling dimmed considerably in 2015 when Shell decided to abandon its ambitious drilling efforts in the Burger Field in the Chukchi Sea, writing off several billion dollars in the process. The recent collapse in oil prices has probably put a stop to Arctic drilling for the time being, and this pause may prove useful in resolving some of the outstanding issues.
Topic:
Environment, Oil, Natural Resources, Geopolitics, and Maritime
Political Geography:
Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Greenland, Arctic, United States of America, and Oceans

14. Map Room: Borders on Top of the World

Author:
Mark Terry and Adam Scholl
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
PRINCE OF WALES STRAIT, Northwest Territories—A century ago, traversing the Northwest Passage was a grueling effort that often took years. Explorers frequently perished as their boats sunk or got trapped in the abundant pack ice. Today, these waters are mostly ice-free during the summer, and ships can sail through with ease.
Political Geography:
India, France, Italy, Island, and Greenland

15. Should Greenland Mine its Uranium?

Author:
Cindy Vestergaard and France Bourgouin
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The world uranium industry has been undergoing a resurgence since 2002, and current supplies are not meeting demand. This increase in energy demand, coupled with concerns about energy security, is fuelling commercial interests in mining uranium. In 2010 the Greenland Government decided to relax its zero-tolerance uranium policy and allowed mining companies to explore prospects for potential uranium mining. With Greenland having the potential to become a uranium supplier, there are a range of domestic and international policy challenges that need to be addressed.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Natural Resources, and Nuclear Power
Political Geography:
Europe and Greenland

16. Diplomacy as Impression Management: Strategic Face-Work and Post-Colonial Embarassment

Author:
Rebecca Adler-Nissen
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Abstract:
This paper proposes to understand diplomacy as a form of impression management. Drawing on Erving Goffman's dramaturgy, I show how diplomats seek to repair sudden cracks in the fragile international order. I analyse Greenland's and the Faroes' puzzling ability to continue controversial seal and whale hunting despite massive international regulation and criticism. In diplomatic negotiations, the two former Danish colonies use post-colonial embarrassment and irony to push Denmark into negotiating an exemption to the EU's ban on seal products in 2009 and defend pilot whale hunting in the Faroes. Analysing diplomacy as impression management implies, first, that diplomacy cannot be seen as a one-to-one reflection of the relative capabilities or identities of the involved states. Rather, diplomacy should be understood as a social world of its own, abiding to its own rules, norms and codes of conduct. Its inhabitants may represent national interests but they also defend particular views of cosmos and they are saving face. Second, a focus on face-work and social order may help explain both the "conformist" bias of diplomacy and the way it may enable contestation of hierarchies.
Topic:
Diplomacy and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Europe, Denmark, and Greenland

17. Cold Front: Hillary, Ottawa, and the Inuit:A Year after the Inuit Re-Assert their Sovereignty, Washington Takes Their Side

Author:
Barry Zellen
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
On April 28, 2009, a delegation of Inuit leaders from Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and Russia presented the Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Arctic Sovereignty in Tromsø, Norway, where the Arctic Council was meeting. This historic declaration represented the Inuit response to their exclusion eleven months earlier at the May 2008 Ilulissat Summit of top foreign policymakers among the Arctic rim states, and reflects a formal, if not aggressively forceful, rejection of the modern state's latest effort to shape the destiny of Arctic without the participation of the Inuit.
Political Geography:
Russia, Canada, Alaska, and Greenland

18. The Marshal's Baton

Author:
Svend Aage Christensen
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
In a letter dated 6 January 2009, the Danish foreign minister, Per Stig Møller, asked DIIS to draw up a report based on the documentary evidence concerning the 1968 crash of a B-52 bomber a few miles from Thule Air Base in northwestern Greenland. The B-52 had four hydrogen bombs on board. For more than four decades, the official American and Danish explanations have consistently stated that all four nuclear weapons were destroyed in the accident.
Topic:
Nuclear Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
United States and Greenland

19. Saving the Arctic, Now

Author:
Rafe Pomerance and Armond Cohen
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
European Affairs
Institution:
The European Institute
Abstract:
The Arctic is leading a global meltdown and Greenland is the worst hot spot – partly because it collects “black carbon” as tiny soot particles that intensify the heat. Emissions of this sort could be quickly and effectively reversed if collective action is taken now.
Topic:
Climate Change and Environment
Political Geography:
Greenland

20. Greenland, Denmark and the Debate on Missile Defense: A Window of Opportunity for Increased Autonomy

Author:
Kristian Søby Kristensen
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
This paper investigates the debate leading up to the joint Danish-Greenlandic decision to allow the US to upgrade its radar at Thule Air Base, ensuring its integration in the American missile defense. By analyzing how this debate is structured in the Danish Realm, the paper argues that the contentious history of the Air Base strengthens the moral position of the Greenlanders and provides them with valuable argumentative assets in the debate. This debate, the paper concludes, presents the Greenlanders with a window of opportunity facilitating negotiations with the Danish Government, the effect of which is further Greenlandic independence and increasing Greenlandic influence on security policy.
Topic:
Security and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Denmark, and Greenland