{"id":31,"date":"2019-01-18T15:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/arctic-relations\/?p=31"},"modified":"2022-04-13T20:51:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T20:51:12","slug":"peopling-the-arctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/arctic-relations\/peopling-the-arctic\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Peopling’ the Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ingrid Medby.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Arctic political relations make it into international news \u2013 often under a headline of competition or crisis \u2013 it is not unusual that the actors in these stories are states: The Arctic states \u2018do\u2019 this, \u2018think\u2019 that; the states compete and claim. This might be the language of media and everyday speech, yet we know that a state is not in and of itself a thinking and acting being. A state is, first and foremost, the product of a range of political practices and discourses \u2013 as state theorists such as Philip Abrams and Timothy Mitchell have argued before me. And if that is the case,\u00a0 then we \u2013 political analysts and scholars interested in Arctic statecraft \u2013 arguably need to pay attention to the numerous people enacting those practices.<\/p>\n

In my research I have been interested in, firstly, how national identity, nationalism, and performance feature in Arctic geopolitics. Examples include the former Prime Minister of Canada Harper\u2019s rhetoric about and photo-shoots in the North; and, across the Pole, Russia\u2019s President Putin\u2019s strikingly similar performances. And secondly, I have wanted to explore how these narratives of \u2018Arctic identity\u2019 are not just rhetorical tools wielded to please an electoral audience, but how they may also influence the orators, performers, and actors themselves: state personnel. In short, I have spent the last few years trying to answer what it means to \u2018be\u2019 and to represent a so-called Arctic state \u2013 specifically for state personnel from Norway, Iceland, and Canada \u2013 thereby seeking to \u2018people\u2019 our understandings of Arctic states.<\/p>\n

Here it might be useful to define the Arctic states as the eight members of the Arctic Council, i.e. the five Nordic states, Russia, Canada, and the U.S. States are not the only actors in the Arctic of course; in fact, the region\u2019s governance is made up of numerous institutions and bodies that work together on specific issues or areas. Arctic inhabitants, and particularly Indigenous peoples, also have a significant political role to play across a range of forums, including in the Council. And scientists too play their part in the unfolding of Arctic geopolitics, not to mention the many organisations and companies that all have their own specific concerns or interests.<\/p>\n

Yet, one intriguing aspect of Arctic geopolitics is that despite the region\u2019s uniqueness \u2013 largely oceanic, sparsely populated, international, etc. \u2013 it remains undeniably state-governed. In a time when some scholars have argued that neoliberal globalisation has led to a diminished role for the so-called \u2018nation-state\u2019, the Arctic region offers a surprising stage for the performance of state sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Having observed the increasing rhetoric of \u2018Arctic identity\u2019 in such state performances, I therefore wanted to find out how the idea resonates (or not) among those tasked with enacting state practices in their everyday. As part of my doctoral research project, I interviewed 49 state personnel from the above three states, all of whom represented different positions, departments, specialisms, and of course personal backgrounds.<\/p>\n

What I found was that Arctic identities were articulated as both geographical and historical, as something that was about territories and temporalities in the north. And moreover, several state personnel explained their sense of Arctic identity as contextual and relational: It means something different to \u2018be\u2019 Arctic when faced with e.g. EU diplomats than when speaking to local populations in their own domestic north; and it means something different to speak of Arctic statehood in a southern capital than from a northern or Indigenous standpoint.<\/p>\n

Perhaps not surprisingly, how an Arctic identity was articulated also differed across the three states \u2013 as well as within their local contexts, and indeed, between individuals. In my view, the contrasting spatial foundation of their respective Arctic identities was particularly interesting: Whereas Norwegian personnel often spoke about the sub-sea, the Icelandic frequently spoke of oceanic currents and movements as \u2018connecting\u2019 them to the north, and finally, the Canadian spoke of the ice and of Inuit lives. In other words, not just physical geographies but also the \u2018geographical imaginaries\u2019 of the Arctic were different, which no doubt has implications for how the region is approached politically.<\/p>\n

In the end, these narratives \u2013 here, what it might mean to \u2018represent\u2019 an Arctic state \u2013 demonstrate that Arctic identities are not fixed, but depend on social and political relations. I would argue that this should not simply be brushed off as \u2018just rhetoric\u2019 or \u2018empty words\u2019, when those tasked with their articulation may simultaneously articulate their own \u2018self\u2019. How personnel view their own state, their jobs, their communities, and indeed themselves will all influence how the above idea of an Arctic state emerges. It is this I mean by our need to \u2018people\u2019 understandings of Arctic states and geopolitics: We need to pay attention to the practitioners of state practices, the actors of political performances, if we are to understand how it all plays out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ingrid Medby<\/a>\u00a0is a Political Geographer at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. Before this, she\u00a0taught at UCL and completed her PhD at Durham University in 2017. She\u00a0is originally from Northern Norway, and became interested in questions of political representation while working as a trainee for the North Norway European Office in Brussels. You can find out more on her staff profile<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most recent publications:<\/p>\n