The politics of Arctic international cooperation: Introducing a dataset on stakeholder participation in Arctic Council meetings, 1998–2015
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836716652431 |
| Author | Sebastian Knecht |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836716652431
Cooperation and Conflict
2017, Vol. 52(2) 203 –223
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0010836716652431
journals.sagepub.com/home/cac
The politics of Arctic
international cooperation:
Introducing a dataset on
stakeholder participation in
Arctic Council meetings,
1998–2015
Sebastian Knecht
Abstract
Contemporary Arctic transformations and their global causes and consequences have put
international cooperation in the Arctic Council, the region’s most important forum for addressing
Arctic affairs, at the forefront of research in Northern governance. With interest in Arctic regional
affairs in world politics being at a historical high, the actual participation and contribution by
interested actors to regional governance arrangements, such as the Arctic Council, has remained
very much a blind spot. This article introduces and analyses a novel dataset on stakeholder
participation in the Arctic Council (STAPAC) for all member states, Permanent Participants and
observers in Ministerial, Senior Arctic Officials’ and subsidiary body meetings between 1998 and
2015. The article finds that participation in the Arctic Council varies significantly across meeting
levels and type of actors, and that new admissions to the Council, a source of major contestation
in recent debates, do not necessarily result in more actors attending. The article further discusses
these findings in light of three prevalent debates in Arctic governance research, and shows the
empirical relevance of the STAPAC dataset for the study of Arctic cooperation and conflict,
observer involvement in the Arctic Council system and political representation of indigenous
Permanent Participants.
Keywords
Arctic Council, geopolitics, indigenous peoples, international cooperation, observers,
stakeholder participation
Corresponding author:
Sebastian Knecht, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies, Ihnestrasse 26,
D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
Email: s.knecht@transnationalstudies.eu
652431CAC0010.1177/0010836716652431Cooperation and ConflictKnecht
research-article2016
Article
204 Cooperation and Conflict 52(2)
Introduction
In light of the tremendous environmental and socioeconomic changes currently taking
place in the Arctic region and their wider relevance also for global climate, resource and
security politics, the Arctic Council has become the focal point of international attention
for addressing the causes and consequences of Arctic transformations in a cooperative
and peaceful manner. By bringing together more and more local, regional and interna-
tional stakeholders, the growing density of actors in the forum has caused intense debates
about Arctic international cooperation and the future role of the Arctic Council in regional
governance (Pedersen, 2012; Wilson, 2016).
Stakeholders in the Arctic Council system are here understood as all ‘actors who are
either significantly affected by an institution or capable of affecting it’ (Stokke, 2014:
772). Currently, such actors comprise the eight Arctic states, six indigenous peoples’
organisations with special status as Permanent Participants (PPs), a potpourri of 32 non-
Arctic states, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), intergovernmental and inter-
parliamentary organisations (hereafter IGOs) with access to the Council, as well as the
wider list of actors with an interest to follow suit. In both political and academic circles,
the rising number of non-Arctic actors involved in regional affairs, particularly from
across Asia, has evoked a lot of suspicion as to what these actors’ intentions are or hidden
agendas could be, as well as the potential drawbacks and conflicts that they could bring
about through the multiplication of voices in regional affairs (Lunde et al., 2015; Solli
et al., 2013; Wills et al., 2014). Yet, their presence also signifies a recent shift in the gov-
ernance of Arctic regional affairs towards multi-stakeholderism and collaborative inter-
national governance in a world hallmarked by global linkages and interdependencies
across societies, geographical scales and levels of governance (Keil and Knecht, in press;
Young, 2005).
Past research, however, has not yet moved beyond scrutinising the potential roles and
impacts of new stakeholders in Arctic governance, and hence falls short of exploring and
assessing their actual participation in governance systems such as the Arctic Council
compared to Arctic states and PPs, recklessly assuming that admission as observers
would result in attendance, and presence in impact. This research agenda is of utmost
importance to better inform research on the behavioural patterns in Arctic cooperation,
and also carries enormous practical value given that over the past two decades of its
existence, reviews of the internal structure and institutional effectiveness of the Arctic
Council have repeatedly emphasised the need to strengthen relations with international
partners and improve their participation and commitment as a central element of reform
(Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC), 2007; Fenge and Funston, 2015; Haavisto, 2001;
Kankaanpää and Young, 2012).
As has been rightly noted by Fenge and Funston (2015: 13), in this context ‘[i]t is
important to distinguish between questions relating to whether or not a particular appli-
cant should be granted Observer status within the Council, and questions relating to their
participation and contributions following admission.’ Many analyses have mainly
dwelled on the Council’s admission policy and investigated the criteria, processes and
possible implications of observer accession or their continued exclusion for the workings
of the Council (Graczyk and Koivurova, 2014; Ingimundarson, 2014; Manicom and
To continue reading
Request your trial