Understanding China’s Admission to the Arctic Council, 2004-2013
By Matthew Willis and Duncan Depledge
By Adam Stepien
On 11 September, owing to the seminar “EU in the Arctic, Arctic in the EU”, Brussels EU district experienced an influx of Arctic experts and EU decision-makers. The seminar presented the results of a project testing the feasibility of the EU Arctic Information Centre (EUAIC) initiative. High level participants discussed not only the EUAIC concept, but also current challenges and the future of the EU Arctic policy. The speakers included, among others, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja, representatives of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament.
Denmark submitted a claim to the North Pole to the United Nations on Monday, asserting that the underwater Lomonosov Ridge connects to Greenland, its protected territory.
By Rebecca Jacobson
Denmark has claimed the North Pole. On Monday, the European nation delivered an official claim to a United Nations council in New York, part of a the race to own the Arctic that includes Norway, Canada and Russia.
Five nations including Denmark, the U.S., Canada, Russia and Norway are vying for claim over the North Pole. At present, all five countries’ claims to the Arctic Circle end approximately 200 nautical miles off their shorelines. These countries have been diligently mapping the ocean floor over the past decade to solidify their claims to the North Pole.
By Joel Plouffe
The Harper government’s foreign policy approach has often been described as “transformative” because it represents a great shift with Canada’s traditional liberal internationalism. Writing earlier this year in the Globe and Mail, John Ibbitson called Harper’s policies a “Big Break,” arguing that it represents “a rupture from everything that had come before.”
Nowhere is this rupture more clear than in Harper’s approach to the Arctic. His policy on the region is not only rhetorically different than anything we’ve seen before – it’s a narrative based on fear of external threats that produces ideologically-driven policy objectives – but its aspiration to break with Canadian internationalism is also colliding with U.S. objectives in the North.
By Adam Stepien
On 11 September, owing to the seminar “EU in the Arctic, Arctic in the EU”, Brussels EU district experienced an influx of Arctic experts and EU decision-makers. The seminar presented the results of a project testing the feasibility of the EU Arctic Information Centre (EUAIC) initiative. High level participants discussed not only the EUAIC concept, but also current challenges and the future of the EU Arctic policy. The speakers included, among others, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja, representatives of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament.
By Mary Chastain
Russian President Vladimir Putin is launching an aggressive campaign to control more of the Arctic’s oil-rich territories in response to plummeting oil prices. With a nation for whom oil represents 20% of its GDP, control of the Arctic would allow for pivotal economic advantages that would come at the detriment of the American oil market.
The EU
Dec 01
The EU should be paying special attention to the Arctic, a new report concludes. Those in the North say it must pay more attention to the consequences of its current policy
By Kevin McGwin
Mention the EU to Arctic wonks, and the first thing that comes to mind will be the union’s ban on sealskin products.
Blamed by the Inuit for ruining their livelihoods and blasted by Canada and Norway for favouring EU member states, the ban, according to diplomats, remains the single reason why Brussels has not been granted permanent observer status in the Arctic Council, an inter-governmental forum, even though several individual member states have.
