The politics of Arctic scales

ABSTRACT

Many representations and narratives about the Arctic and Arctic politics carry misconceptions and flawed generalisations. Usually, the term ‘Arctic’ is used as an unproblematized – by default – geographical frame, without considering why this particular ‘Arctic’ framing was chosen and what this choice entails. Yet, considering geographical framing is important as the very choice behind it already carries a political agenda. This paper argues that focussing on the interplay between the different ‘scales’ of the Arctic can shed light on the politics of Arctic scales and resulting discourses. To that end, I analysed every Arctic strategy published by both Arctic and non-Arctic actors. I concentrated on strategies that specifically focused on the Arctic region as a whole, to draw comparisons from these framings. Using thematic analysis, I examined how the Arctic is construed and how the scale at which Arctic issues are framed comes with political consequences. In doing so, I wish to underline the interplay scales and underlying political processes. I conclude by stressing that recognising and attending to the production of ‘scale’ as an inherently political process greatly improves our understanding of regional politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Arctic
• geography
• scalar politics
• scales
• arctic politics

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the reviewers and the editor of this special issue for their valuable comments and suggestions, which helped me to improve the quality and clarity of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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² Catrien J. A. M. Termeer, Art Dewulf, and Maartje van Lieshout, “Disentangling Scale Approaches in Governance Research. Comparing Monocentric, Multilevel, and Adaptive Governance.”; Jeroen Warner et al., “The Politics of Scale Framing, Ambiguity and Uncertainty: Flood Interventions in the Netherlands”.

³ Donald A. Schön, Martin Rein, and Martin Rein, Frame reflection: toward the resolution of intractable policy controversies.

⁴ Oran R. Young, “The Age of the Arctic,” 161.

⁵ Ingrid A. Medby, “Arctic state, Arctic nation ? Arctic national identity among the post-Cold War generation in Norway, “ 256.

⁶ Mikhail Gorbachev, “Mikhail Gorbachev”s Speech in Murmansk at the Ceremonial Meeting on the Occasion of the Presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star to the City Of Murmansk,” § 21.

⁷ Lassi Heininen, “The end of the post-Cold War in the Arctic,” 31.

⁸ Franklyn Griffiths, “Towards an Arctic Basin Council.”

⁹ Camille Escudé-Joffres, “Coopération politique et intégration régionale en Arctique: naissance, développement et critique d”une région.”

¹⁰ AEPS, Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy.

¹¹ Donat Pharand, “The Case for an Arctic Region Council and a Treaty Proposal,” 191.

¹² Idem.

¹³ Arctic Council, Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council.

¹⁴ Eva Carina Helena Keskitalo, Negotiating the Arctic: The construction of an international region.

¹⁵ Keskitalo, “International Region-Building:Development of the Arctic as an International Region,” 196.

¹⁶ John Agnew, “Representing space: Space, scale and culture in social science.”; Erik Swyngedouw, “Excluding the other: the production of scale and scaled politics.”; David Delaney and Helga Leitner, “The political construction of scale.”; Sallie A. Marston, “The social construction of scale.”

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¹⁸ Sallie A. Marston, “The social construction of scale.”

¹⁹ David Delaney and Helga Leitner, “The political construction of scale.”

²⁰ Henri Lefebvre, “La production de l”espace.”

²¹ Neil Smith, “Geography, Difference and the Politics of Scale.”

²² Erik Swyngedouw, “Excluding the other: the production of scale and scaled politics.”

²³ John Agnew, “Representing space: Space, scale and culture in social science.”

²⁴ Mikkel Runge Olesen, Cooperation or conflict in the Arctic: A Literature Review, 6.

²⁵ Scott Borgerson, “Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming.”; Scott Borgerson, “The Coming Arctic Boom: As the Ice Melts, the Region Heats Up.”

²⁶ Rob Huebert, The Newly Emerging Arctic Security Environment; Rob Huebert, “A new Cold War in the Arctic?! The old one never ended! .”

²⁷ Robert W. Murray, “Arctic politics in the emerging multipolar system: challenges and consequences.”

²⁸ Oran R. Young, “Governing the Arctic: From Cold War Theater to Mosaic of Cooperation.”; Oran R. Young, “Arctic Governance – Pathways to the Future.”

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³⁶ Jason Dittmer et al., “Have you heard the one about the disappearing ice? Recasting Arctic geopolitics.”

³⁷ Philip E. Steinberg et al., Contesting the Arctic: Politics and Imaginaries in the Circumpolar North.

³⁸ Berit Kristoffersen, “Securing” geography: framings, logics and strategies in the Norwegian high north “.

³⁹ Klaus Dodds and Richard Powell, “Polar geopolitics: new researchers on the Polar Regions.”

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⁴¹ Wilfrid Greaves, “Arctic break up: Climate change, geopolitics, and the fragmenting Arctic security region.”

⁴² Vesa Väätänen, “The construction, solidification and political implications of geographical scientific facts: A perspective on the “changing” Arctic region.”

⁴³ National dedicated Arctic strategies started to be published by 2007, in parallel to a growing international interest in the region.

⁴⁴ An official translation of the latest Russian Arctic Strategy was not available at the time of analysis, and so it was excluded.

⁴⁵ Gearóid Ó Tuathail and John Agnew, “Geopolitics and discourse: Practical geopolitical reasoning in American foreign policy,” 192.

⁴⁶ Teun A. Van Dijk, “Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis.”

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⁴⁹ Stephen Harper, quoted in Canadian Government, “Canada”s Northern Strategy: Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future,” 3.

⁵⁰ “Sápmi” refers to the traditional land of the Saamis.

⁵¹ Saami Council, The Sámi Arctic Strategy, 4.

⁵² Government of The Netherlands, The Netherlands” Polar Strategy 2021–2025: Prepared for change, 11.

⁵³ HM Government, Adapting To Change: UK policy towards the Arctic, 4.

⁵⁴ Government of Iceland, A Parliamentary Resolution on Iceland”s Arctic Policy, 1.

⁵⁵ Inuit Circumpolar Council, Inuit Arctic Policy, 9.

⁵⁶ Ibidem, 21.

⁵⁷ Idem.

⁵⁸ Saami Council, The Sámi Arctic Strategy, 10.

⁵⁹ Emilie Canova and Pauline Pic, “« L”Arctique est ma maison », une conversation avec la Présidente du Parlement sami de Norvège.”

⁶⁰ Armand Frémont, La région, espace vécu.

⁶¹ Vincent Pouliot, “Regional security practices and Russian – Atlantic relations,” 217.

⁶² Camille Escudé-Joffres, “Coopération politique et intégration régionale en Arctique (1996–2019): construction d”une région.”

⁶³ Canadian Government, Canada”s Arctic and Northern Policy Framework, section “our vision”.

⁶⁴ Idem.

⁶⁵ Arctic Council, Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council., art. 2.

⁶⁶ Joël Plouffe, “Canada”s Tous Azimuts Arctic Foreign Policy.”

⁶⁷ Russian Federation, Russian Federation”s Policy for the Arctic to 2020, 1.

⁶⁸ Chuan-Ying Liu et al., “The Arctic policy and port development along the Northern Sea Route: Evidence from Russia”s Arctic strategy.”; Jean-François Pelletier et al., “Analysis of the Russian Arctic port system using AIS data.”

⁶⁹ US Department of Defense, Department of Defense Arctic Strategy, 3.

⁷⁰ Rebecca Pincus, “Three-Way Power Dynamics in the Arctic.”

⁷¹ I use here a geographic definition of the scale, thus considering that small scale maps show a larger geographic area with less details.

⁷² Medby, “Arctic state, Arctic nation ? Arctic national identity among the post-Cold War generation in Norway.”

⁷³ Norwegian Government, The Norwegian Government”s Arctic Policy. People, opportunities and Norwegian interests in the Arctic, 7.

⁷⁴ Danny MacKinnon, “Reconstructing scale: Towards a new scalar politics.”:

⁷⁵ Klaus Dodds and Valur Ingimundarson, “Territorial nationalism and Arctic geopolitics: Iceland as an Arctic coastal state.”

⁷⁶ Össur Skarphéðinsson, “Icelandic Perspective on the Arctic.”

⁷⁷ The People”s Republic of China, China”s Arctic Policy, 1.

⁷⁸ Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Towards an Italian Strategy for the Arctic. National Guidelines, 3.

⁷⁹ Steinberg and Dodds, “The Arctic Council after Kiruna.”

⁸⁰ Andrew EG Jonas, “The scale politics of spaliality,” (London: SAGE Publications, 1994).

⁸¹ Jonas, “The scale politics of spaliality,” 262.

⁸² Delaney and Leitner, “The political construction of scale,” 96.

⁸³ Warner et al., “The Politics of Scale Framing, Ambiguity and Uncertainty: Flood Interventions in the Netherlands”.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Sentinel North program of Université Laval, made possible, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund; this work is also part of a PhD funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture.