Arctic Yearbook 2012
25 Years of Arctic Environmental Agency: Changing Issues and Power Relations
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Figure 1
Arctic Actors and Actors’ Relationships and Relative Influences
Blue shades indicate government bodies; red indicates corporations; purple indicates indigenous peoples’
organizations, and yellow indicates social movements.
While the intrinsic interests of the different actors have not changed much over time, their strategies
have varied according to the different phases (and corresponding issues) as identified above. Figure 1
shows the various Arctic actors and their possible strategic relationships during the last phase, in the
early 21
st
century.
This analysis allows us to discuss the structural constraints and potential for more sustainable
environmental agency concerning the Arctic, looking in particular at four groups of actors: nation-
states, large environmental non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations and
indigenous peoples’ organizations.
Nation-States
The nation-states’ interests are relatively clear, as they are essentially preoccupied by their economic
agenda, with energy, military and environmental security being mostly means to ensure that agenda
(Finger & Finger-Stich, 2010). It is to serve the economic interest that they are willing to open access
1
Arc c Agency
Arc c regional
Governments
TNCs
& SOEs
UN
UNCLOS, IMO,
environmental
conven ons
Arc c
council
Arc c
Indigenous Peoples
Int.
Environmental
NGOs
Non‐Arc c states
(China, Korea,
Japan…)
5 Arc c
ocean rim
states
8 Arc c states