International Disputes And Cultural Ideas In The Canadian Arctic

This book explores the Canadian relationship with its portion of the Arctic region which revolves around the dramatic split between the appearance of absent-minded governance, bordering on indifference toward the region, and the raging nationalism during moments of actual and perceived challenge toward the sovereignty of the imagined “Canadian Arctic region.” Canada’s nationalistic relationship with the Arctic region is often discussed as a reactionary phenomenon to the Americanization of Canada and the product of government propaganda. As this book illustrates, however, the complexity and evolution of the Canadian relationship with the Arctic region and its implication for Canada’s approach toward international relations requires a more in-depth exploration Please be aware than an error has been noted for Table 1.1 on page 71. In this table the sub-category “Inuit” is mislabelled. It should read “Native Indians and Inuit” as the data presented represents this Canadian census sub-category which calculated all indigenous peoples and Inuit peoples together.

Presents the report of a conference on the need to recognize the North as a legitimate part of Canadian foreign policy. The conference examined six specific areas deemed central to such a policy: economic development and trade, the environment, support for Arctic science and technology, maritime issues, Arctic security, and cultural co-operation. Other topics discussed include bilateral relations with the United States, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries, as well as the policy-making process.

An analysis and recommendations for a coherent Canadian arctic policy, an essential element of which is a northern dimension for Canadian foreign policy.

As climate change threatens to open the Northwest Passage to ice-free travel, Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic has come to the fore. Although Canada’s claim to the Arctic archipelago is now firmly entrenched in the minds of Canadians, less than a century ago, that claim was much less secure. Acts of Occupation draws on a wealth of previously untapped archival sources to piece together the engrossing story of how one explorer’s self-serving ambition ultimately led Canada to craft and defend a decisive Arctic policy. Historians Cavell and Noakes show how unfounded paranoia about Danish designs on the north, fueled by a deliberate campaign of deceit and fear-mongering, was the catalyst for Canada’s active administrative occupation of the Arctic. A compelling tale, Acts of Occupation throws new light on a transformative period in the history of Canadian Arctic policy and provides much-needed historical context for contemporary debates on northern sovereignty.

Global warming has had a dramatic impact on the Arctic environment, including the ice melt that has opened previously ice-covered waterways. State and non-state actors who look to the region and its resources with varied agendas have started to pay attention. Do new geopolitical dynamics point to a competitive and inherently conflictual “race for resources”? Or will the Arctic become a region governed by mutual benefit, international law, and the achievement of a widening array of cooperative arrangements among interested states and Indigenous peoples? As an Arctic nation Canada is not immune to the consequences of these transformations. In Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security, and Stewardship, the authors, all leading commentators on Arctic affairs, grapple with fundamental questions about how Canada should craft a responsible and effective Northern strategy. They outline diverse paths to achieving sovereignty, security, and stewardship in Canada’s Arctic and in the broader circumpolar world. The changing Arctic region presents Canadians with daunting challenges and tremendous opportunities. This book will inspire continued debate on what Canada must do to protect its interests, project its values, and play a leadership role in the twenty-first-century Arctic. Forewords by Senator Hugh Segal and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of National Defence Bill Graham.

This book documents how the Arctic region has been represented in the media: exploring how the media has framed the Arctic and whether this has an impact on governmental decision-making and public preferences. The Arctic region faces profound transformations, due to global warming, spurring intense debates about economic growth, environmental protection, and socio-cultural development. At the same time, most of humanity will never come face-to-face with the realities of the region: the media represents our only opportunity to learn about what this evolving region stands for. Recognizing that media coverage will tend to focus on specific events and relay specific messages, this book scrutinizes the nature of these messages to figure out how the Arctic region is presented by different media outlets. Studying different types of media, Landriault conducts an analysis of 628 newspaper articles, 110 televised reports, 9 magazine articles, and 404 tweets to provide the first systematic and rigorous study of Arctic media representations. This book will interest scholars, practitioners, and students in Arctic studies, critical geography, political science, and communication studies.

This book injects nuance into the debate about the moral legitimacy of environmental and animal activism and explores how activism can lead to stigma and destruction of minority group identities, cultural practices and community structures. It takes readers back to ground zero of the anti-sealing movement – Newfoundland and Labrador. This book sheds light on the human costs of activists and the repercussions for vulnerable people when activism normalizes forms of violence as acceptable to achieve their desired outcomes. Inspired by Greenpeace Canada’s apology to Canadian Inuit, Indigenous and coastal peoples, this book brings into focus the local peoples who were targeted by activists and media outlets and left behind once the cultural and economic structures of the sealing industry and sealing practices were severely damaged by activist stigmatization and the global outcry against rural and coastal peoples and their practices. Drawing upon literature on cultural violence and archival research, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of international relations, development studies, public policy, sustainability studies and Indigenous studies.

A hard-hitting, timely, and provocative book about the history and future of the Canadian Arctic. With passion and sharp words, Arctic Front confronts Canada’s longstanding neglect of the Far North and outline what needs to be done to protect our national interest. Through a lively and engaging history of the region, Arctic Front reveals how Canadians and their governments have: ignored this region for generations expanded Canadian sovereignty over the past hundred years by reacting to other countries’ challenges become the least effective of all Circumpolar nations in responding to the needs of the Arctic neglected our obligations to the North, including a failure to capitalize on the human and economic resources of this vast land or to establish a presence that would make any foreign claims to offshore resources inconceivable. As global warming continues to melt the ice in the Northwest Passage and the competition for northern resources heats up, Canada, the authors warn, will be forced to defend this area from a position of grave weakness. Our leaders need to take action today, blending defence and development, to complete Canadian nation building in this fragile region. An energetic and engaging collaboration by four of Canada’s leading Northern specialists, Arctic Front is a clarion call to all Canadians about our endangered Arctic region, challenging the country to step away from the symbols and myth making of the past and toward the urgent political, environmental and economic realities of the 21st century.