KDH Master Thesis

Title: The Greenlandic Voices in Foreign and Security Policy: Perspectives from Danish and Greenlandic Politicians and Officials Front page photo: Untitled, downloaded from Canva (nettips//pixabay, 2020) Keystrokes: 157,631 Date: May 28th, 2021 Supervisor: Lill Rastad Bjørst Type: Master’s Thesis Author: Katja Dahl Horsfeldt Aalborg University: The Faculty of Social Science, Department of Politics and Society 1 Abstract This master thesis focusses on the Greenlandic voices in foreign and security policy and how it is articulated by Danish and Greenlandic experts, including diplomates, officials, and politicians. Through an ontological phenomenological constructivistic philosophy of the research and interviewing as method, this thesis explores the research question: How are the Greenlandic voices articulated in foreign and security policy by Danish and Greenlandic experts? The analysis is structured by three operationalized key units extracted from the theoretical framework of securitization by Buzan, Wæver & De Wilde (1998). This theoretical framework has been chosen to map out how the issues inside the foreign and security policy field concerning Greenland and Denmark are complex. Moreover, the theory is used to find existing dualisms that has a risk of developing into a security issue. Lastly, the theory in its traditional form with key units of securitization is used to analyze whether there is a potential securitization concerning how the Greenlandic voices are articulated in the foreign and security policy. The empirical data consists of eight interviews with Danish and Greenlandic experts with professions inside the political and diplomatic sector, supplemented with relevant secondary documents, such as policy papers, reports, laws, and declarations which address the foreign and security policy field of the Kingdom of Denmark. The first part of the analysis finds that Greenlandic commercial interests and the Danish administration’s competences on the foreign and security policy areas are in a grey zone. Moreover, the analysis shows that the Joint Arctic Command, as an actor inside the field of security, is balancing between the military and societal sector because of the focus on strengthened relationship with the Greenlandic society. Thirdly, the relationship with the US appears as two-faced because of development opportunities for Greenland as well as the risks followed by the spillover effects. 2 The second part of the analysis concludes that inside the dualisms and security issues, several of the informants emphasized the demand of Greenlanders representing the Greenlandic voices rather than Danish or American analyses of the Greenlandic voices. The differences between Greenlandic and Danish approaches could in some of the conflicting dualisms result in shadows of a security issue, however these are never fully a security issue because of the Greenlandic administration (before the Greenlandic election) and the Danish administration had a better relation than seen before. The last part of the analysis uses the key units of securitization and concludes that a stronger basis for foreign and security policy knowledge is securitized by several of the informants and accepted by the Greenlandic and Danish administrations. The stronger basis for knowledge on foreign and security policy is threaten by fact-resistant decision-making but also Danish and American analyses. The Danish and Greenlandic experts’ articulation of the Greenlandic voices in foreign and security policy is first articulated by examples that show how complex the issues and topics are, because they weave into each other. Likewise, the articulation of the Greenlandic voices emphasizes how Greenlanders should represent Greenland and have more influence. Lastly, the voices request a stronger knowledge foundation about foreign and security policy since it is crucial when Greenlandic decision-makers have increased influence. Keywords: Greenland, Denmark, foreign and security policy, ontological phenomenological constructivism, securitization, multisectoral, security, dualisms, interviews, Greenlandic voices 3 Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Research question ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Delimitations ................................................................................................................................................... 11 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Philosophy of the research .............................................................................................................................. 12 Methods: Interviews ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Approach ......................................................................................................................................................... 18 Discourse analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Perspectives ..................................................................................................................................................... 22 Perspective .................................................................................................................................................. 22 Context of the interviews ............................................................................................................................ 24 Examples ..................................................................................................................................................... 25 Credibility check .......................................................................................................................................... 25 Coherence ................................................................................................................................................... 25 Adequacy and limitations ............................................................................................................................ 25 Resonance ................................................................................................................................................... 26 Theory ......................................................................................................................................................... 26 Securitization and nuances on the theory connected to cases of the Greenland and the Arctic: A literature review .............................................................................................................................................................. 27 Securitization by Buzan, Wæver & de Wilde .................................................................................................... 32 Securitization and desecuritization ............................................................................................................. 33 Key units of security analysis ...................................................................................................................... 33 Speech act ................................................................................................................................................... 35 Reflection on securitization, discourse and (social) constructivism ............................................................ 35 Operationalization ........................................................................................................................................... 36 Dualisms and actant model as summarizing tool ........................................................................................ 37 Strategy of analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 38 Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................ 38 Multisectoral landscape .................................................................................................................................. 39 Grey zone of Greenlandic commercial interests and politics ...................................................................... 39 Joint Arctic Command: An example on an actor balancing between sectors ............................................. 41 The US and spillover .................................................................................................................................... 44 Security as failed politics ................................................................................................................................. 48 The

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