All Is Well in the High North? Contemporary Sources of Tension in the Arctic
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Andrea Scassola
Abstract
The Arctic is undergoing major, profound changes that open up the region to new economic activities. At the international political level, the potential for conflict is often overstated certain media narratives due to flawed knowledge and the persistence of bipolar narratives. Whereas most interstate disputes are being settled in a climate of détente, conflicts simmer over local autonomy, land use and the overall challenge of sustainable development.
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The Permanent Participants have full consultation rights in connection with the Arctic Council’s negotiations and decisions.
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- 17
Interestingly, the shipping sector seems to stand aside from this debate, as the new developments within the International Maritime Organization (IMO) suggest that a new International Mandatory Code for Shipping in Polar Water is unfolding and may enter in force in 2014 or 2015. Should this happen, the creation of a Polar Code will likely disclose tremendous opportunities to enhance sustainable navigation in the Arctic, decreasing threats to human safety and environmental integrity.
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In this regard, Fjellheim and Henriksen (2006) note the potential conflict of interests between offshore oil activities and indigenous peoples’ fishing interests.
- 19
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©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin / Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Editors’ Forum: The Global Arctic
- Preface
- Introduction: The Practice of Arctic Governance – Historical and Contemporary Cases
- Imagining the Arctic, the Russian Way: Concepts and Projects for the Arctic Ocean in the Eighteenth Century
- Scientists and Heroes: International Arctic Cooperation at the End of the Nineteenth Century
- Between Facts and Fiction: Greenland and the Question of Sovereignty 1945–1954
- Transforming Greenland: Imperial Formations in the Cold War
- From International Governance to Region Building in the Arctic?
- All Is Well in the High North? Contemporary Sources of Tension in the Arctic
- Book Review
- Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, Jeffrey M. Pilcher Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 300 pp. ISBN 978-0199740062
- Gordian Knot: Apartheid and the Unmaking of the Liberal World Order, Ryan M. Irwin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, xi–244 pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-985561-2
Articles in the same Issue
- Editors’ Forum: The Global Arctic
- Preface
- Introduction: The Practice of Arctic Governance – Historical and Contemporary Cases
- Imagining the Arctic, the Russian Way: Concepts and Projects for the Arctic Ocean in the Eighteenth Century
- Scientists and Heroes: International Arctic Cooperation at the End of the Nineteenth Century
- Between Facts and Fiction: Greenland and the Question of Sovereignty 1945–1954
- Transforming Greenland: Imperial Formations in the Cold War
- From International Governance to Region Building in the Arctic?
- All Is Well in the High North? Contemporary Sources of Tension in the Arctic
- Book Review
- Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food, Jeffrey M. Pilcher Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 300 pp. ISBN 978-0199740062
- Gordian Knot: Apartheid and the Unmaking of the Liberal World Order, Ryan M. Irwin. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, xi–244 pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-985561-2
