Placing the Arctic within Analytical and Theoretical Frameworks

Abstract

Exploring the growing prominence of the Arctic and the accompanying efforts to provide the basis for consensus building and governance for this evolving area is no small undertaking. Like the region itself, the topics of concern and the questions to be addressed are truly broad and complex in nature. In an attempt to come to grips with them, it seems useful to place some of these matters within an analytical framework—outlining what is already known about the dimensions of the issues concerned and the several responses that have been given to them. In this manner, the extent of the various challenges confronting the Swedish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council can be better understood and appreciated. It seems also important to place this entire discussion within the context of the current debate on the theory and practice of international relations and foreign policy. In this way, developments in the Arctic can be assessed and compared with other undertakings of multilateral diplomacy elsewhere in the global community of today.