Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic

Postcolonial Paradiplomacy between High and Low Politics

Kristian Søby Kristensen, Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen, Kristian Søby Kristensen, Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351668828
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic examines the international politics of semi-independent Greenland in a changing and increasingly globalised Arctic. Without sovereign statehood, but with increased geopolitical importance, independent foreign policy ambitions, and a solidified self-image as a trailblazer for Arctic indigenous peoples' rights, Greenland is making its mark on the Arctic and is in turn affected – and empowered – by Arctic developments.

The chapters in this collection analyse how a distinct Greenlandic foreign policy identity shapes political ends and means, how relations to its parent state of Denmark is both a burden and a resource, and how Greenlandic actors use and influence regional institutional settings as well as foreign states and commercial actors to produce an increasingly independent – if not sovereign – entity with aims and ambitions for regional change in the Arctic.

This is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of Greenland's international relations and how they are connected to wider Arctic politics. It will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in Arctic governance and security, international relations, sovereignty, geopolitics, paradiplomacy, indigenous affairs and anyone concerned with the political future of the Arctic.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Greenland and the international politics of a changing Arctic: postcolonial paradiplomacy between high and low politics
• 1 Setting the scene in Nuuk: introducing the cast of characters in Greenlandic foreign policy narratives
• 2 Independence through international affairs: how foreign relations shaped Greenlandic identity before 1979
• 3 Greenlandic sovereignty in practice: Uranium, independence, and foreign relations in Greenland between three logics of security
• 4 The Arctic turn: how did the High North become a foreign and security policy priority for Denmark?
• 5 Lightning rod: US, Greenlandic and Danish relations in the shadow of postcolonial reputations
• 6 Chinese investments in Greenland: promises and risks as seen from Nuuk, Copenhagen and Beijing
• 7 The politics of economic security: Denmark, Greenland and Chinese mining investment
• 8 The divergent scalar strategies of the Greenlandic government and the Inuit Circumpolar Council
• 9 Greenland and the Arctic Council: subnational regions in a time of Arctic Westphalianisation
• 10 Materialising Greenland within a critical Arctic geopolitics
• Conclusion: the opportunities and challenges of Greenlandic paradiplomacy
• Index