Research project
Science and Business in Arctic Environmental Governance
Events
When we think about international relations, we tend to consider first the power of states and states’ representatives. Many accounts of Arctic governance, however, acknowledge that non-state actors have exercised important influence at critical junctures in regional politics. However, we know little about the role of science and business actors in shaping outcomes in contemporary Arctic governance, despite the high visibility of these two sets of actors.
POLGOV seeks to address this gap with two main research tasks. First, we will systematically assess how and why science and business actors' knowledge claims have gained purchase (or failed to do so) in two Arctic policy fields. Looking at policy developments in regional biodiversity politics and the development of oil spill prevention/response mechanisms, we trace change in how the policy problems have been understood over time (process tracing) and seek to map and understand relationships between policy field ‘players’ (network analysis). This work package (WP1) is carried out by researchers at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute.
Secondly, POLGOV's work acknowledges that there will likely remain enduring 'governance gaps' in circumpolar environmental governance due to a lack of regulation or failure to implement existing international agreements and national regulation. Noting that concerns for reputation and positive recognition have facilitated 'races to the top' in reaching high standards in several other sectors, POLGOV's ranking exercise - 'the Arctic Corporate Responsibility Index' (ACRI)- takes up the challenge forwarded in the POLARPROG call to produce new tools for Arctic regulation. The innovative cooperation between business and expert actors needed to produce the ACRI also provides us with one further opportunity to reflect on and analyze the potential role of non-state actors in Arctic environmental governance.
POLGOV researchers are still in an active fieldwork stage, with most of the academic publications from the project appearing in 2018 and 2019. In the meantime, our opinion and policy pieces thus far are available below, as well as write-ups of some of the events where the POLGOV team has been sharing early research results.
Opinion pieces/policy notes
- Senior Researcher on the POLGOV project, Svein Vigeland Rottem of Fridtjof Nansen Institute, considers how the Arctic Council includes (or fails to include) relevant stakeholders in this opinion piece
- Christian Prip mapped out efforts towards strengthening Arctic marine cooperation on the JCLOS (Jebsen Centre on the Law of the Sea) blog (November 2017, in English)
- Elana Wilson Rowe wrote about Norway's new High North policy (May 2017, in English).
- Christian Prip argued for the need for environmental protection of the Arctic ocean (February 2017, in Norwegian).
- Svein Vigeland Rottem discussed the capacity of the Arctic Council to meet new challenges (December 2016, in Norwegian).
- Christian Prip presented challenges to progress in global biodiversity politics (December 2016, in Norwegian).
- Elana Wilson Rowe assessed prospects for Arctic politics under a new Trump presidency (December 2016, in English)
- Elana Wilson Rowe wrote about the role of indigenous peoples' organizations in stabilizing Arctic politics in light of international conflicts outside the circumpolar region (October 2016, in English).
Event write-ups
- Leif Jensen, Christian Prip and Svein Vigeland Rottem presented their early research findings at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, October 2017.
- Elana Wilson Rowe argued at Arctic Frontiers (January 2017) that the biggest risk for the Arctic is not conflict, but too little political cooperation - and funding- for the challenges that matter most for the region (in High North News in English and Norwegian).
- Svein Vigeland Rottem presented challenges and options for Arctic Council reform at a celebration of Finland's 100th anniversary at the Norwegian Parliament.
Related events:
Russia and Arctic Governance: Cooperation in Conflict
Launch event for Elana Wilson Rowe's book on Arctic governance at the Stimson Center, 12 September 2018
High North Center for Business and Governance's anniversary seminar (in Norwegian):
Project Manager
Participants
Articles
The Russia Conference: Cold Peace in the Arctic?
On September 14, NUPI’s Russia Conference took place in Oslo. Couldn’t be there? Watch the entire event, including Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide's key note speech, on YouTube.
The Arctic buffer
Indigenous peoples are safeguarding Arctic cooperation, Elana Wilson Rowe (NUPI) writes in her most recent High North News commentary.
New publications
Algorithm for Producing Rankings Based on Expert Surveys
This paper develops an automated algorithm to process input data for segmented string relative rankings (SSRRs). The purpose of the SSRR methodology is to create rankings of countries, companies, or any other units based on surveys of expert opinion. This is done without the use of grading systems, which can distort the results due to varying degrees of strictness among experts. However, the original SSRR approach relies on manual application, which is highly laborious and also carries a risk of human error. This paper seeks to solve this problem by further developing the SSRR approach by employing link analysis, which is based on network theory and is similar to the PageRank algorithm used by the Google search engine. The ranking data are treated as part of a linear, hierarchical network and each unit receives a score according to how many units are positioned below it in the network. This approach makes it possible to efficiently resolve contradictions among experts providing input for a ranking. A hypertext preprocessor (PHP) script for the algorithm is included in the article’s appendix. The proposed methodology is suitable for use across a range of social science disciplines, especially economics, sociology, and political science.
Business as usual? The private sector’s changing role in Arctic environmental governance
How has the private sector engaged in crossborder Arctic diplomacy? Despite a focus on business actors as targets of policy recommendations from the Arctic Council and an increased attention on the importance of engaging with the private sector, we find that business actors have not yet been heavily involved in shaping Arctic governance outcomes. The brief concludes with recommendations as to how the capacity of the private sector can be engaged to secure better Arctic environmental governance.
Arctic Governance: Power in cross-border cooperation
This book seeks to pose and explore a question that sheds light on the contested but largelyl cooperative nature of Arctic governance in the post Cold-War period: how does power matter - and how has it mattered - in shaping cross-border cooperation and diplomacy in the Arctic? Each chapter functions as a window through which power relations in the Arctic are explored. Issues include how representing the Arctic region matters for securing preffered outcomes, how circumpolar cooperation is marked by regional hierarchies and how Arctic governance has become a global social site in its own right, replete with disciplining norms for steering diplomatic behaviour. This book draws upon Russia's role in the Arctic Council as an extended case study and examines how Arctic cross-border governance can be understood as a site of competition over the exercise of authority. The book was launched at the Stimson Center in Washington DC on 12 September 2018. Watch the launch seminar, Russia and Arctic Governance: Cooperation in Conflict, here: https://youtu.be/bQ0iKwUbims
The Arctic in Moscow
Urban areas in Arctic Russia are experiencing unprecedented social and ecological change. This collection outlines the key challenges that city managers will face in navigating this shifting political, economic, social, and environmental terrain. In particular, the volume examines how energy production drives a boom-bust cycle in the Arctic economy, explores how migrants from Muslim cultures are reshaping the social fabric of northern cities, and provides a detailed analysis of climate change and its impact on urban and industrial infrastructure.