Suchergebnisse

"After Ukraine: How can we ensure stability in the Arctic?" presents the findings of two interview-based reports addressing the risk of conflict in the Arctic over a twenty-year perspective. We found that there are concerns that the Arctic may be torn apart as a result of geopolitical forces on several levels, and that the rules-based order in the Arctic has come under pressure after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the A7's subsequent decision to pause the Arctic Council. This presents a number of risks to future security in the region and the Arctic states are having difficulties figuring out how to move on from here. We identified some of these risks and formulated a set of policy recommendations to mitigate them.

Between Involvement and Detachment takes grasp with the Johnson administration's (1963-1969) perceptions of and responses to the Western European realignments. Arguing that the Johnson administration set out to maintain the American unilateralist position in the transatlantic relation, not just as a function of America's position as a superpower, but also as a function of certain historically based Euro-skepticism, the thesis suggests that America's Western European policy can be seen on a continuum of involvement and detachment. Based on archival research, the thesis concludes, that these policies, essentially, were detached as America rejected the European reason of state. The Western European realignments were recorded in the Johnson administration with de Gaulle's critique of US hegemony in Western Europe in the early 1960s. The thesis argues that the administration to a large extent had a traditional reading of de Gaulle's policies, and feared that if Gaullist thinking spread among the European allies, it would merit to a return to traditional European power politics. The analysis shows that, by 1964 the administration believed, according to this study, that NATO's principle of integration stood between the current 'balanced' Western Europe and the Europe of the pre-War period. In addition the administration held the opinion that the German problem and the Western European détente tampered with the US unilateralism in its relations with the Soviet Union, and its position as the leader of the Western world. De Gaulle's withdrawal from NATO's integrated command in 1966, and the subsequent British and Belgian calls for a reform of the alliance and a détente with East, contributed to the administration's fear of alliance disintegration and return to European power politics. The thesis argues that the Department of State attempted a 'political bargain', with which the allies would be given political consultation and a détente in return for re-commitment to integration, whereas the Acheson Committee proposed a ...

When the 2009 Act granting Greenland self-government was passed, giving the territory full authority over its natural resources, a complex and mixed legal system was introduced within the "Commonwealth of the Realm", which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. This system has been further complicated by Denmark´s membership and Greenland´s non-membership of the European Union. Much of the debate today on Greenland´s uranium potential is focused on clarifying issues of competence and authority between Greenland and Denmark, the aim being to move beyond the notion of "zero tolerance" to developing concrete legislative and regulatory measures.

In May 2018, ten years will have passed since the representatives from the five Arctic coastal states (Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia) and the Home Rule government of Greenland met in Ilulissat. Learning from the Ilulissat Initiative examines how the initiative came about, and how it has affected the existing regional order in the Arctic. Arctic diplomacy is important because it enables practical solutions to regional issues and reduces the potential for great power conflict in the region. Arctic institutions also have an impact that extends beyond the polar region, as they give Russia and Western diplomats an arena for communicating about broader non-Arctic questions, even as general East-West relations have grown strained since the Ukraine Crisis. Regional diplomatic cooperation between the Arctic states has largely continued after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, partly because Russia has strong economic interests in maintaining peaceful Arctic relations. Northern forums therefore give policymakers a rare opportunity to meet, communicate, and influence a key region. The Ilulissat meeting was the result of a joint Danish‒Greenlandic initiative and is often hailed as one of the most prominent examples of successful Arctic diplomacy. The Arctic Strategy of the Kingdom of Denmark is scheduled to be updated in 2018‒19. The report therefore aims to provide the basis for debate on Arctic governance and the future of the principles of the Ilulissat Declaration in the hope that it might contribute to these processes.