Governing Arctic Change: Global Perspectives

332 Pages·2017·3.25 MB·English

by  Kathrin Keil

Governing
Arctic Change
Global Perspectives
Edited by
Kathrin Keil, Sebastian Knecht
Governing Arctic Change
Kathrin Keil • Sebastian Knecht
Editors
Governing Arctic
Change
Global Perspectives
Editors
Kathrin Keil Sebastian Knecht
Institute for Advanced Sustainability Berlin Graduate School for
Studies (IASS) Transnational Studies (BTS)
Potsdam, Germany Berlin, Germany
ISBN 978-1-137-50883-6 ISBN 978-1-137-50884-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50884-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957996
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A
cknowledgements
As the Arctic Council marked its 20th anniversary in September 2016, the
Arctic continues to make it to newspaper headlines and intensive academic
scrutiny as a major cause of global concern. We just witnessed an abnor-
mally warm winter. In fact, January and February 2016 were the warmest
ever recorded since 1880, globally but particularly in the northern hemi-
sphere. In Germany these winter months felt rather like changing quickly
from a dry autumn to a cold and damp spring, but never truly like what
we knew as ‘winter’ from our childhoods about two decades ago. With
Christmas 2015 at 15 °C and overall only a few days of snow, the skiing
season to many might have been reminiscent more of a summer toboggan
run. Through our work and interest as Arctic researchers, we have come
more and more to understand that such changes in mid-latitudes are in
large part due to Arctic change, and in turn that Arctic changes are pre-
cipitated by systems and processes south of the Arctic Circle.
The situation probably has become even more notorious compared to
the time we started working on this volume about two years ago. Already
in the spring of 2014, the news was full of temperature record highs and
Arctic sea ice record lows. Since then, the Arctic has become increasingly
salient in public, political, and academic debates. As a matter of fact, the
Arctic is not solely responsible for changing weather and climate patterns
across the globe. But it is a crucial part of it. Also is the interrelation
between Arctic and global developments not only discernable in changing
weather and climate patterns. The world looks north again also due to
the region’s increasing accessibility as a new corridor for global maritime
trade and a presumed abundance of resources. Diverse state and non-state
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
actors from across the globe express their eagerness to have a say on the
future of the Arctic region alongside the eight Arctic states and northern
communities, and not always to the delight of the latter. We believe that
a better understanding of the complex interlinkages of Arctic change to
find suitable and effective governance solutions for their local and global
implications is more important than ever. This is what this book is about.
Putting this volume together has been very much a collaborative effort,
and as its subtitle suggests it was a global one, too. The authors that con-
tributed to this book come from many different spots of the world, some
of which would be well considered ‘truly Arctic’, others more ‘exotic’ to
the Arctic mind. What all of them share is the conviction that the Arctic
matters in a global picture and that we need a good bit of open- mindedness
towards and constructive dialogue between Arctic and global perspectives.
Only then can we put together the puzzle of Arctic change and what could
and should be done about it in the region and beyond.
This volume would not have been possible without the precious time
and constant efforts invested by all contributors. They are the first our
thanks go to. We were fortunate enough to fall on sympathetic ears with
all authors we had in mind and approached for each of the chapters.
They have done a tremendous job over the past two years. Our editorial
rigour was certainly not easy to live with and demanded a great portion of
patience and commitment on the part of the contributors to go through
several rounds of revision. All authors took up this task without ever com-
plaining, but instead worked continuously on their contributions to make
them an even better fit to the overall volume. We hope the result is a
sophisticated, insightful, and distinctive book that will help shape a grow-
ing research agenda in international governance and Arctic studies alike.
Many people supported us along the way with helpful suggestions,
insisting criticism and sustained enthusiasm. They have their shares for
the book to come into being. First of all, we had the pleasure to find a
publisher that gave us both the academic freedom and editorial guidance
to make this book project a very pleasant and productive experience. We
wish to thank especially Sara Crowley-Vigneau and Jemima Warren from
Palgrave Macmillan for their endless support of this project and their trust
in our editorial skills.
The Fritz Thyssen Foundation has provided very generous financial
support for a book workshop that brought together editors, authors, and
external experts in May 2015, and we very much appreciated the oppor-
tunity to host the workshop at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany. This intensive two-day workshop
has been indispensable for finding a common language and understanding
of what this volume is about and has particularly helped to let all chapters
speak to each other. Finally, we are more than grateful to Oran R. Young,
R. Andreas Kraemer, Waliul Hasanat, Volker Rachold, and Ilan Chabay
who have attended the book workshop as discussants and initiated fruitful
dialogue through highly valuable input and challenging perspectives on
each of the chapters. Our thanks further goes to Tanja Baines and Jana
Fasheh from IASS Potsdam for their administrative assistance.
A last word remains for those the book is dedicated to. Kathrin dedi-
cates this book to her daughter Alana Helene who was born during this
exciting journey. Sebastian dedicates this book to the memory of his
father, Matthias Knecht.
Kathrin Keil and Sebastian Knecht
Potsdam/Berlin, March 2016
c
ontents
1 Introduction: The Arctic as a Globally Embedded Space 1
Kathrin Keil and Sebastian Knecht
Imaginaries, Institutional Politics, Involvement and Issues
of a Globalised Arctic 5
The Arctic ‘Old’ and ‘New’ 8
The Global Arctic Paradigm 10
Book Structure 12
References 15
Part 1 Imaginaries: How to Envision the Arctic in a
Global Context? 19
2 Sustainable Development as a Global-Arctic Matter:
Imaginaries and Controversies 21
Berit Kristoffersen and Oluf Langhelle
Introduction 21
Imagining Arctic Futures and the Role of Sustainable
Development 24
Arctic Imaginaries 25
The Complexities of Sustainable Development 27
ix
x CONTENTS
From Global to Regional Sustainable Development:
And Back Again 30
The Global in the Arctic: Sustainable Development
Outside-In 31
The Arctic in the Global: Sustainable Development
Inside-Out 34
Sustainable Development and the Interconnectedness of 
Imaginaries 35
Concluding Remarks 37
References 38
3 Reimagining Political Space: The Limits of Arctic
Indigenous Self-Determination in International
Governance? 43
Jessica M. Shadian
Indigeneity in Theoretical and Historical Context 44
Expanding the Domain of International Law: The Case
of the Inuit Polity 46
A Crisis in the Narrative 48
Indigenous Diplomacies in a Global Arctic: Rights Holders,
Not Stakeholders 51
References 56
4 Globalising the Arctic Climate: Geoengineering
and the Emerging Global Polity 59
Olaf Corry
Introduction 59
Subject-Centrism in IR 60
Governance-Objects and Polities 62
Governing the Arctic Climate? 65
Geoengineering 66
Arctic Geoengineering 67
The Arctic Climate in a Global Polity 70
Conclusion 74
References 75
CONTENTS xi
Part 2 Institutional Politics: How to Organise a
Global Arctic? 79
5 Coping with Institutional Challenges for Arctic
Environmental Governance 81
Christoph Humrich
Introduction: Arctic Environmental Governance in an 
Embedded and Embedding Space 81
The Fragmented Architecture of Arctic Environmental
Governance 84
Functional Tasks for Environmental Governance in a 
Fragmented Governance Architecture 86
Institutional Challenges for the Arctic Council as 
‘Pre-Eminent High-Level Forum of the Arctic Region’ 90
Enabling Interplay through Deliberative Processes and 
Actor Networks 92
Conclusion: Coping with the Institutional Challenges 94
References 95
6 Global Environmental Governance and Treaty-Making:
The Arctic’s Fragmented Voice 101
Henrik Selin
Introduction 101
Arctic Environmental Governance 102
The Stockholm Convention on POPs 105
The Minamata Convention on Mercury 108
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 112
The Arctic’s Fragmented Voice 116
References 118
7 Preparing for the Global Rush: The Arctic Council,
Institutional Norms, and Socialisation of Observer
Behaviour 121
Piotr Graczyk, Małgorzata Śmieszek, Timo Koivurova, and
Adam Stępień
Introduction 121
From Norm Compliance to Norm Internalisation 123