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Arctic Yearbook 2013
Regionalism and Globalisation
This article attempts to address these questions by looking through a prism of International
Relations (IR) theories and applying regionalism and security paradigms in order to assess the
situation in the Arctic.
History of the North
The political history of the Arctic has its roots in the very early societies of Scandinavia, Russia and
North America. The culture and lifestyle of indigenous peoples living in the Northern areas allowed
for constant interactive practices, mostly based on trade and migration, with the European High
North being a good example of such social, cultural and economic exchange (Heininen, 2004: 207).
Communities thrived by utilising natural resources: fishing, hunting and reindeer herding have always
been characteristic to the Arctic indigenous way of life.
Following the establishment of the nation-state system, the previously non-existent idea of fixed
national borders was introduced in the North. In the Nordic Arctic, for example, this development
had its greatest impact on the nomadic tribes of indigenous peoples that travelled seasonally
together with their reindeer and were now facing the problem of border-crossing. New borders
separated communities, and in a way, the previously flexible small regions were made static and
isolated. Another novelty was the national interest that states now had (or did not have) in their
Northern areas and their influence on policy making. National goals and regulations that did not
necessarily represent the needs and desires of the local peoples were set in place in the capital, thus
making the Northern regions one part of a greater state policy.
This has remained mostly true throughout the 19
th
-20
th
centuries, with WWII dividing the Arctic
even further, although in a way also uniting it into two bigger blocs: Russia (the Soviet bloc) versus
everyone else (the NATO bloc). These blocs, albeit politically and militarily confronting each other,
did not cut all ties completely, but continued certain joint activities in the North, including
environmental and scientific research. These ties became the basis of the collaborative frameworks
that sprouted after the collapse of the Soviet Union and continue on today. Finally, in recent years
the world has experienced an Arctic boom, with more and more countries taking an interest in this
region.
First Wave: Environmental Concerns
The global interest towards the Arctic, however, is not anything new: in the field of environmental
protection and scientific research the international cooperation goes as far as the end of the 19
th
century, with the First International Polar Year (IPY) of 1881-1884 marking the official beginning
of such joint activity. It was followed by, among other, the creation of Spitsbergen Treaty
2
in 1920
that allowed its 42 nation-state parties to explore and exploit the natural riches of the Svalbard
Archipelago (Svalbard Treaty, Articles 2-3, 7), which now houses research stations of 10 nations
(Kings Bay, n.d.), the Second IPY in 1932-1933 and the International Geophysical Year in 1957-
1958.
The renewed focus on the Arctic emerged in the 1980-1990s, triggered by rising environmental
concerns, the unification of the indigenous peoples‘ voice and strengthening of their role on the