Greenland - posed to be a major player in the Arctic, with an estimated 8.9 billion barrels of oil in the East Greenland Rift - gained greater autonomy from Denmark on Sunday. Greenlanders are now legally a separate people from Danes, and Kalaallisut has become the official language. The New York Times covered the story on its front page, at least momentarily. Meanwhile, my colleague, Damien Degeorges, spoke about expanded home rule on Sveriges Radio, the main Swedish radio station. Damien is an expert on Greenland who graduated from the Sorbonne. He is currently writing his PhD dissertation on the role of the world’s largest island in the Arctic. He’s also currently a research assistant at the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland. In the interview, he states that people will become more interested in Greenland in the future due to the issues of “climate change, energy, and the geopolitical situation in the Arctic.” He points out that Greenland happens to lie at the center of the Arctic, between Europe and North America.

Sweden’s interest in the Arctic is related to its investments in Greenland and the country’s progressive environmental attitudes, which have given the country an important role in combatting climate change. Plus, Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union beginning July 1, and it hopes to shine a brighter light on the environment and the Arctic, even if it does not possess any territory in the region.

Alaska Senator Mark Begich - the Democrat who defeated Ted Stevens in November 2008 - has devised a list of five initiatives to usher in what he calls the “Second Arctic Century,” a reference to the discovery of the North Pole 100 years ago. He discussed some of his proposals in a radio interview recently with the Alaska Public Radio Network.

Radio Interview - Radio Interview, June 10, 2009

The Five Proposals:

1. Ratification of two international treaties that affect the Arctic: UNCLOS and POPs
2. Creation of an Arctic Ambassador
3. Creation of an Arctic Regional Citizens Advisory Council
4. More funding and improved coordination of Arctic science
5. Increased investment in Arctic infrastructure (notably ice breakers, submarines, and the Coast Guard)

Joining UNCLOS would allow the U.S. to have a say in Arctic affairs. Currently, it’s one of the few countries in the world that hasn’t ratified the treaty, along with Libya and North Korea. Begich is interested in not just the signing of UNCLOS, but the creation of an entirely new American oceans policy. He said of the melting ice pack, “The change is opening new opportunities. Reduction of the Arctic icepack could open new transportation corridors and allow expansion of resource development such as oil and gas, although these opportunities also carry great risks.” Therefore, Alaska, which will be most affected by the melting ice, would welcome a new oceans policy.

The second treaty is POPS, or the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. It still has yet to be ratified by the Senate despite being adopted in 2001. POPs are toxins that travel through the air and water, building up in the fat of marine mammals - which are then consumed by indigenous people, posing a health risk.

Begich is calling for the creation of an Arctic Ambassador “because other members of the Arctic Council have ambassadors representing them at high-level meetings.” Having such an official would create a more durable, long-term American policy in the Arctic.

He also wants a Regional Citizens Advisory Council made up of local residents to give input on Arctic affairs. This body would be modeled after the Prince William Sound citizens advisory council, which was created in response to the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Begich observed, “We must make the needed investments to ensure the United States maintains its leadership at the top of our globe. And we must listen to and address the needs of the residents of the Arctic.”

In regards to improving research efforts in the Arctic, the senator remarked, “Every research season it seems the Arctic is crisscrossed with researchers working independently on projects, each producing good science. We need a coordinated and integrated research and monitoring plan.” Perhaps something along the lines of the International Polar Year, which successfully coordinated scientists from all over the world to work on joint studies, could be enabled within the American research community.

Finally, he calls for investment in a new fleet of icebreakers. Last week, we saw how Canada is scaling back its plans for icebreakers due to economic difficulties, but with the U.S. government ramping up spending in practically every arena, it’s possible that the Arctic could stand to benefit. Furthermore, Begich noted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have a personal interest in Arctic policy - perhaps a good sign for investment in infrastructure, technology, and equipment in the region. One thing’s for sure: if the U.S. does invest in new icebreakers, Canadians will be up in arms. Just reading the comments posted to online news articles gives a sense of how many people north of the 49th parallel feel that their government needs to do more to stand up to the Americans and the Russians in defending their Arctic sovereignty.

Begich, one of the few clear voices in American Arctic policy, will lead a delegation of senators on a “climate tour” of Alaska in August. According to the Arctic Sounder, the delegation will observe “erosion in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, climate change impacts on glaciers and forests in Southcentral Alaska,” and will visit “the North Slope of Alaska to view new energy technologies used in northern oil and gas production.”

Most of what we read about the Arctic comes in the form of news articles, foreign policy statements, speeches, and scientific reports. Any books are generally historical recounts of expeditions. However, a novel about the Arctic called Rankin Inlet, by Mara Feeney, has just been published. Feeney became interested in the Arctic after spending a summer there in college, and she eventually learned to speak the language. She moved to the Arctic to work for the government of the Northwest Territories and has worked there for much of the past 30 years, giving her a unique insight into Inuit culture as an outsider.

The book, which is set in the Inuit town of Rankin Inlet on the western shores of the Hudson Bay, concentrates on the cultural changes the indigenous people have experienced over the past couple of decades, from the arrival of telephones to the creation of the province of Nunavat. It might be of interest to people keen on gaining familiarity with the Inuit, who are often forgotten in the Arctic disputes that play out between nation states.

Rankin Inlet is available on Amazon. There’s also a short one-minute trailer for the book, which consists of Feeney talking about how and why she became interested in the Arctic, here.

The Canadian navy is delaying its plan to construct a fleet of Arctic patrol boats. It has still not submitted formal requests to shipbuilders for blueprints, and probably will not do so for some time now.

The navy’s project management office wrote to the Defence Ministry that “the extent of the delay is unknown at this time.” Most likely, the delay is due to cost overruns. This development deals a blow to the Conservatives’ Northern strategy, which has four objectives. The first objective is to “defend sovereignty,” and within thta heading, the creation of an Arctic patrol fleet to defend Canadian sovereignty in the north is listed as the second most important priority.

In September 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the government would acquire six to eight ice-ready patrol boats. While the ships would not have been icebreakers, Canada had previously been the only country besides Russia that was increasing its ice-ready flotilla. There, President Dmitri Medvedev announced last year that four new icebreakers will be built, which will be designed some time this year.

Now, Canada is looking just to purchase six Class-5 ice-cutting ships rather than true icebreakers. Ice-cutters use their stern to cut through frozen seas, while icebreakers crush the ice with their weight from above. The ice-cutting ships will be armed with 25-millimeter cannons rather than the 40-millimeter ones previously envisioned. They will also have reduced cargo carrying capacity and speed.

Critics were quick to pounce on the reduced size of the gun, which is the same size as those on the Canadian army’s light armored vehicles. They claimed that the new ships will be little different from those employed by the coast guard. An analyst with the Navy League of Canada, Ken Bowring, called the 25-mm type of gun a “peashooter.” Referencing Russia, he noted,

“There are ships out there, other nations; what kind of resolve does it show? How much importance to they put on the Arctic when you put something up there that’s got nothing on it?… It’s important to have something that shows your resolve.”

Contrastingly, Commander David Soule, who has supervised the development of the Arctic flotilla, emphasized that the tasks the ships would undertake, such as search-and-rescue operations and patrolling, “tend not to be like a warfare situation.” However, that is little comfort to people like Bowring, who foresee a general militarization of the region and view other Arctic states as threats to Canada’s sovereignty.

Other links

“Navy waters down plans for patrol ships,” CTV.ca

Video of a Canadian icebreaker, the Griffin

Russia will rebuild Soviet-era Arctic monitoring stations in the Arctic, Canada’s Globe and Mail reports. The monitoring stations can be used for everything from monitoring meteorological conditions to serving as bases for research. At the height of the USSR, there were approximately 100 Arctic stations, but now, there are only 12.

Decline of Marine Observation Stations from 1980s to 2000s.

Speaking about Russia’s plans to use the new bases to further Russia’s geological research to back up its territorial claims, Arthur Chilingarov, the Kremlin-designated Arctic spokesman, announced, “Russia won’t leave the Arctic, we will build up our economic and scientific presence in the region… I’m confident that our claim is fully legitimate.”

The country is also amping up construction of its nuclear icebreaker fleet, which is unique in the world. Russia invented the nuclear icebreaker during the 1950s for navigation and the transportation of goods in the frozen Arctic Sea. Last June, Rosatom, the state nuclear corporation, and the region of Murmansk, which is home to the icebreaker service base at Atomflot, signed an agreement to construct a new type of nuclear icebreaker. This will constitute the fourth generation, and it will debut in 2015.

Here’s a roundup of recent events in Nordic military affairs.

Norway moves military operations HQs to High North

Norway has moved its center of military operations to Reitan, becoming the first Arctic state to headquarter its operations command in the High North. This development is in line with Norway’s increasing strategic focus on the High North. On August 1, mil-ops will move from Jåttå, outside Stavanger in southern Norway, about a thousand miles north to Reitan, located outside of Bodø. Currently, Bodø is the subordinate center of command. It is currently also home to the country’s main air force base, which deploys aircraft to monitor Russian jet exercises.

Vegard Oen Hatten, writing on the Norwegian military’s official website, says that “Particular emphasis has been placed on building a new and better organization, and ensuring the best possibilities for employees who are directly affected by the move.”

Nordic Foreign Ministers Meeting in Reykjavik

In other news, the Nordic Foreign Ministers met from June 8-9 in Reykjavik, Iceland to discuss deepening regional cooperation in foreign policy and security affairs. The meeting built on the work of former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg’s report entitled Nordic Cooperation and Foreign and Security Policy, which was released last February to general enthusiasm of Nordic ministers. Ministers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden agreed that. One issue they discussed in particular was the idea of cooperating to provide Iceland with air force defense services, which it lost once the U.S. military withdrew from its baval air station in Keflavik in 2006. The most pressing problems were defined to be “crisis management, air surveillance and communications, satellite services, cyber security, foreign services, and military cooperation on transport, medical services, education, material and exercise ranges.” The environment was also a major topic of discussion. Ministers discussed creating an civil maritime environmental surveying system, which would be called Barents Watch, and preparation for the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009.

Nordic security cooperation is not a new idea, but it has recently resurfaced as the Arctic grows in importance (and this even though neither Finland nor Sweden are Arctic states). After World War II, a Scandinavian Defence Union was floated to protect the Nordic countries from Russia, but with the creation of NATO, such an organization was deemed redundant. However, it is now regarded that a regional defense union could provide a useful complementary layer of security, particularly since neither Sweden nor Finland are NATO members. The declaration produced by the ministers at the end of the meeting stated that only through “well-functioning multilateralism, not least the work in the United Nations framework, that transnational challenges can be solved.”

Yet it appears that Nordic military cooperation is more along the lines of regionalism rather than multilateralism. Traditionally, of course, the Nordic nations are some of the biggest donators to the United Nations by percentage of GDP, making them important players in the multilateral arena. But now, the countries are now trying to band together not just militarily, but also diplomatically. In Kabul, there is a pilot project to intensify Nordic diplomatic cooperation between the embassies. This regionalism flies in the face of a Nordic-wide turn away from the European Union, notably in Finland, where the Euroskeptic True Finns party made significant gains in the recent European parliamentary elections. And of course, Norway twice rejected EU membership. Then again, Iceland is looking to join the EU, so the Nordic countries could be further divided along EU and non-EU and NATO and non-NATO lines. Thus, Nordic cooperation that does not depend on going through multilateral organizations could make the regionalism more coherent and enduring.

The entire declaration can be viewed here.

Finland favors increased Nordic security cooperation

Also of note, Finland has officially stated that it is in favor of deepening Nordic security cooperation. Finland has historically been ambivalent about entangling itself in military alliances, as it has generally pursued a policy of neutrality for fear of provoking the Russian bear. To wit, it has never joined NATO. But back in February, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb remarked,

“This will not be called a defence alliance. Finland remains a country that is not a part of any military alliance.”

Press release from the Finnish government here.

Russia angered by NATO exercises in High North

Pravda, a Russian newspaper which professes its mission to be “to report the truth and nothing but the truth,” reports that Baltops, a NATO-led annual multinational military exercise currently underway in the Baltic Sea, is “obviously a provocative act” - particularly since the neutral states of Sweden and Finland are participating under the umbrella of the NATO Partnership for Peace, which Russian military expert Konstantin Sivkov of the Academy for Geopolitical Sciences claims is evidence of “a wider bloc being formed in the West.”

Sivkov goes on to say that “NATO is holding its drills near Russia’s southern and northern borders, which is not incidental. The alliance approaches Georgia as a springboard to capture the energy resources of the Caspian Sea region. The north is attractive for the opportunity to attack Russia’s key centers.”

The article closes with this bombshell: “To put it in a nutshell, NATO organized the exercise to train the destruction of enemy’s operational aircraft and navy, which al-Qaida does not have, of course..”

So whether NATO is performing exercises in the Arctic or the Baltic, it will inadvertently be in Russia’s backyard and risk provoking it - which was Finland’s fear all along. It may be a good thing that Finland doesn’t have an Arctic coastline, since that makes for one less potential dispute with its eastern neighbor.

At the end of August, United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon will visit Svalbard on a fact-finding mission to learn about the effects of global warming in the Arctic. He will travel to the northerly Norwegian island accompanied by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Ban will also stop by a joint Norwegian and Korean research station on Ny Alesund and see the Global Seed Vault during his visit.

Stoltenberg remarked, “The fact that Ban’s first visit to Norway as UN Secretary-General focuses on climate challenges is of special importance now, when the world society is preparing to gather on a new climate agreement in Copenhagen in December.”

Ban has personally called for a “New Green Deal,” believing that it is imperative the world reach a global consensus on sustainable development before it is too late. In that regard, he has gone on several missions and tours to better understand the linkages between humans and the environment. This is not the first time that Ban has traveled to the ends of the earth to learn more about global warming. In October 2007, the Secretary General visited Antarctica to examine melting ice first-hand, making him the first UN head to visit the continent at the bottom of the earth.

The United Nations as a whole has also been concerned with the effects of global warming on the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. In March 2009, UNESCO held a four-day meeting in Monaco where the U.N. organ discussed how to pursue a strategy of sustainable development in the Arctic in order to meet the needs of local people. Among other measures, the meeting recommended establishing “a working/advisory group to develop dialogue and strategy on the challenges of climate change for circumpolar indigenous peoples, including safeguarding intangible heritage and building synergies between indigenous and scientific knowledge.”

While there are no indigenous people living on Svalbard, Ban’s visit confirms that the U.N. is increasingly concerned with Arctic affairs at large, whether related to social, environmental, or political domains.

News links

Norwegian Foreign Ministry Press Release (in Norwegian)
“UN Secretary-General on climate trip to Norway and Svalbard,” Barents Observer

On Wednesday, Greenland’s left-wing opposition party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, won the elections with 44% of the vote. It will control 14/31 seats in the Greenlandic Parliament, the Landsting. The Siumut Party, which has ruled Greenland for the past thirty years, was ousted.

The new government will form in time for expanded home rule, which begins on June 21. Greenland voted for greater independence from Denmark last November, with the result that the island will control its oil and mineral resources and Greenlandic will become the official language. Eventually, once it has the economic wherewithal, Greenland will also gain responsibilities in 32 new areas, such as justice and legal affairs. Still, however, Greenland and Denmark will split oil revenues fifty-fifty until Greenland pays back Denmark for all of the economic subsidies it has received over the years. Subsidies are what has prevented complete independence for Greenland, as they constitute a vital 2/3 of the local economy.

News links

“Left-wing opposition wins Greenland election,” The Seattle Times

“Enoksen klar til at gå af som formand,” Jyllands Posten (in Danish)

The Governor-General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, traveled to Nunavut last week to celebrate the province’s 10-year anniversary. In Rankin Inlet, she participated in an Inuit ceremony where she ate a piece of raw seal heart. She was asked whether her consumption of the seal heart was supposed to send a message to the EU, which recently banned the importation of seal products. She responded, “Take from that what you will.” She later remarked, “My motto is breaking down solitudes… It provoked, I think, a big discussion in the country. And I think that is part of some new awareness… I hope it is.”

Reactions to her consumption of seal varied markedly. National Inuit leader Mary Simon remarked in a press release, ““To us, this kind gesture is an acknowledgment by the Governor-General of our culture and our dependence upon our wildlife as an important resource for our communities today.” On the contrary, an official from PETA was stunned “that a Canadian official would indulge in such bloodlust.”

In any case, the Governor General’s trip wasn’t just to publicize the Inuit way of life. She is also pushing for the creation of an Arctic university. In addition, her trip underscored the importance the Canadian government places in Arctic sovereignty. All the way back in 1956, while flying over the North Pole, Governor-General Vincent Massey dropped a small metal canister that held a message written in several languages saying, “This is ours.”

The event was also supposed to promote Canadian consumption of Inuit products to boost the indigenous economy. The Governor General was also served “muskox ribs, Arctic char, goose, and caribou.” Coincidentally, the New York Times happened to post a recipe for Arctic char a few days later. Seal, however, might still be a ways off from the Dining pages of the NYT.

News links
“Governor-General applauded, denounced for eating raw seal,” The Globe and Mail

“In relishing seal heart, Jean showed grace,” The Globe and Mail

“EU’s hypocrisy over seal heart hard to swallow,” The Star Phoenix