The Arctic Council: Its Place in the Future of Arctic Governance

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The Arctic Council: Its Place in the Future of Arctic Governance The Arctic Council: Its place in the future of Arctic governance ISBN# 978-0-9737651-5-1 © 2012 The Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (Arctic Centre, University of Lapland) © 2012 Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto © 2012 The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation © 2012 Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program © 2012 Martin Breum © 2012 Sanjay Chaturvedi © 2012 Klaus Dodds © 2012 Piotr Graczyk © 2012 Paula Kankaanpää © 2012 Erik J. Molenaar © 2012 Annika E. Nilsson © 2012 Jennifer Rhemann © 2012 Nikolas Sellheim The following is a collection of papers originally presented during THE ARCTIC COUNCIL: ITS PLACE IN THE FUTURE OF ARCTIC GOVERNANCE, January 17-18, 2012. The conference was a collaboration between the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program and the University of Lapland. We would like to thank our generous sponsors, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) and Cisco for their support in making this publication possible. i Table of Contents Forward............................................................................................................................................................... iii PART 1: The Nuuk Agenda and the Tromsø Secretariat Chapter 1 – Klaus Dodds Anticipating the Arctic and the Arctic Council: Pre-emption, precaution and preparedness............. 1 Chapter 2 – Jennifer Rhemann Looking Within and Outside of the Arctic to Increase the Governance Capacity of the Arctic Council............................................................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3 – Nikolas Sellheim The Establishment of the Permanent Arctic Council Secretariat: Challenges and opportunities....... 60 Chapter 4 – Paula Kankaanpää Knowledge Structures of the Arctic Council: For sustainable development........................................... 83 Chapter 5 – Martin Breum When the Arctic Council Speaks: How to move the Council’s communication into the future...... 113 PART 2: Mandates, Security and Science Policy Chapter 6 – Erik J. Molenaar Current and Prospective Roles of the Arctic Council System within the Context of the Law of the Sea..................................................................................................................................................................... 139 Chapter 7 – Annika E. Nilsson Knowing the Arctic: The Arctic Council as a cognitive forerunner...................................................... 190 PART 3: Observers Chapter 8 – Sanjay Chaturverdi Geopolitical Transformations: ‘Rising’ Asia and the future of the Arctic Council............................. 225 Chapter 9 – Piotr Graczyk The Arctic Council Inclusive of Non-Arctic Perspectives: Seeking a new balance............................. 261 ii Foreword This book has its origins in the final conference of the prestigious Arctic Governance Project, which took place at the beginning of 2010 in Tromsø, Norway. Two eminent professors, Oran Young and Robert Corell, led this project, of which the goal was to influence the development of the Arctic Council and Arctic governance, more generally. As participants of the conference, Tom Axworthy and Timo Koivurova “found” each other in the sense that we both envisaged and aspired for more critical, broader, and forward-looking discussion surrounding governance in the Arctic as the aim of the Arctic Governance project, instead, focused on more immediate policy influences. In retrospect, the project likely served as a spark towards the overall movement to strengthen the Arctic Council. We must acknowledge that the Arctic Council has stepped up its efforts. The May 2011 Nuuk ministerial meeting was a clear indication of this trend with the signature of the Agreement on Cooperation on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue in the Arctic and the decision to establish a permanent secretariat for the Council. While these movements are positive, in our view, we do not think this means that there is no longer a need for the type of discussion and reflection that we sought back in 2010. Why? The Arctic will face vast challenges in the years to come, requiring all levels of governance – especially the Arctic Council – to constantly adjust their modes of operation. Critical discussion is a necessary component in adapting to new policy realities. Broader forward-looking approaches enable us to step back and thoroughly reflect on what direction we should be heading in. The time is right for this type of discussion: the chairmanship of the Arctic Council has passed through its first full rotation and the chair will soon return to its initiator, Canada, in 2013. It will then pass to the United States in 2015. Now it is moment to discuss in which direction Canada – and perhaps Canada and the US together – want to take the Arctic Council. To seize upon this critical moment in Arctic governance the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program and the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland commissioned contributions from scholars and other professionals whom we knew could provide the type of critical and forward-looking perspectives that we wanted. We are very proud of the diverse group viewpoints that we were able to put together and whose contributions are the outcome of serious and innovative thinking. We would like to thank each one of them for their contribution to the book and in their fulfillment of the goals that we had set for the project. It was also great for us, as editors, to primarily hear researchers present and defend their views to Arctic Council actors – to the Senior Arctic Officials, Arctic indigenous leaders (representing the six permanent participants of the Arctic Council), and observers – at the final conference entitled The Arctic Council: its place in the future of Arctic governance held at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, on January 17 and 18, 2012. The conference’s element of direct interaction between research and policymakers served to inform and enhance the articles in this book. iii We would also like to tak e this opportunity to thank the Munk -Gordon Arctic Security Program and the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, for supporting the project. In particular, we would like to thank Sara French, the Program Manager of the Arctic Security Program, for her extremely effective assistance in all stages of producing this ebook. Sincerely, Tom Axworthy Timo Koivurova Md Waliul Hasanat President and CEO Research professor, director Researcher, Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation The Northern Institute for Environmental and The Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland University of Lapland & Associate Professor, Department of Law and Justice, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh iv Anticipating the Arctic and the Arctic Council: Pre-emption, precaution and preparedness Klaus Dodds, Royal Holloway, University of London Introduction Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of The Arctic is undergoing significant change. In the London and Visiting years to come, these changes will present Arctic stakeholders with a line of new Fellow at St Cross challenges, as well as opportunities, as the region gradually begins to open up as a College, University of result of climate change. How will this trend affect the peoples living in the Arctic? Oxford. He is editor of How will it affect the fragile biodiversity of the region? And how will the Arctic The Geographical States and its peoples address the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow in the Journal and specializes in Arctic? (Nuuk Declaration, 2011) the geopolitics of the Polar Regions, popular culture and international As the ice melts, technological advances are creating opportunities to open politics and the history transport routes across the Arctic Ocean and exploit the natural resources of the of geopolitics/geography. Arctic. These developments must be managed in a responsible and sustainable His polar work, initially manner so that they benefit the region and do not lead to undesired side effects . in and on the Antarctic The Arctic Council should display the shared future vision of the Arctic states so and more recently the as to consolidate the good co-operation in the region. Its work should be guided by Arctic, is concerned with openness and flexibility to enable it to address topical issues (Sweden, 2011). the inter-relationship between territory, sovereignty, resources Debates over Arctic governance, and specifically the Arctic Council, are and governance. He is underpinned by an explicit sense that the geographical transformation of the Arctic the author and editor of region is a driving force. Thinning and disappearing sea ice, melting permafrost, a number of books and circumpolar climate change, however locally and regionally varied, are including commonly identified as playing their part in unsettling the geographies of Arctic governance. Economic globalization, for most commentators, is also implicated in KlausAnticipating Dodds thecon’t Arctic the global entanglement of the Arctic region. As Oran Young recently asserted, “It Observantand the Arctic States: Council is beyond doubt that the Arctic is in the midst of a transformation, driven by the GeopoliticsKlaus Dodds and Visual combined forces of climate change and globalization and expected to lead to Culture, Geopolitics: A increased
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