Aims
This course aims to:
• provide an overview of the contemporary International Relations of the Polar regions
• provide an insight into the opportunities and threats to the Polar regions, its economies, and peoples
• enable increased awareness of how global environmental, and external political, and economic / technology changes and drivers are impacting Arctic and Antarctic life today
Content
In this course, we will primarily be addressing issues, opportunities, and the future development of the Arctic in the 21st century. This is a region which is increasingly important for three primary reasons. Firstly, it is at the epicentre of a physical state change in the earth. Secondly, it is of supreme strategic importance as a key location for both US and Russian strategic nuclear activities, and as a huge natural resource arena. Thirdly, as the location of a potential new global maritime trade route across Eurasia, the Northern Sea Route. Additionally, it is a working laboratory for contemporary international relations (IR) where established IR theories, practices, and strategies are all being challenged, altered, and sometimes even dismantled.
Concurrently, external advances in dual-use technologies for both economic and geostrategic applications in the Arctic and Space above it, the rise of a global service economy, China’s entry onto the world stage, and the altering nature of US leadership and politics, coupled with Russian assertiveness, have unsurprisingly converged in both the European and Asian Arctic, and to some extent, in Antarctica too. We will be considering why this is so, what is driving these changes in the status of the poles, how change is being orchestrated, and who will benefit from potential alterations in governance, security, economic exploitation, and human development in the region(s).
There are no pre-requisites for this course. It is helpful if you have an interest in the international political economy, and you are intrigued by high-level international affairs between the superpowers and understanding how technology is applied across vast remote regions of the world under conditions that demand sustainable development and environmental protection.
Presentation of the course
The course will be offered as a series of illustrated lectures and using film clips, with the opportunity for question-and-answer sessions. Session three will take place at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) on Lensfield Road. (The SPRI is a 23 minute or 1.1-mile walk, or about 10 minutes’ walk and 6-minute bus-ride.)
Course sessions
1. The issues and opportunities emerging in the Polar regions in the 21st century.
2. Governance of the Poles: the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty.
3. The unfolding role and shaping of International Relations in the Arctic – visit to the Scott Polar Research Institute.
4. Strategic aspects of the Poles of interests to host, external countries, and Superpowers.
5. Technology, geo-economics, and a New World Order in the Eurasian Arctic. Geopolitics and its application to historical and contemporary existence in the Poles.
Learning outcomes
You are expected to gain from this series of classroom sessions a greater understanding of the subject and of the core issues and arguments central to the course.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
• an understanding of the contemporary International Relations of the Polar regions
• an insight into the opportunities and threats to the Polar regions, its economies, and peoples
• an increased awareness of how global environmental, and external political, and
economic /technology changes and drivers are impacting Arctic and Antarctic life today
Required reading
Brady, A M, China as a polar great power (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
Fallon, T, edited by Lo, Bobo, Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing and the New Geopolitics (Brookings Institution, 2017) see: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11366-010-9137-8
A regular familiarisation with articles in both the Independent Barents Observer (https://thebarentsobserver.com/en) and Arctic Today (www.arctictoday.com/) websites will give you a solid, generalist, overview of much of the subject matter discussed during the seminar. They are an excellent means of gaining knowledge of the region, and consist usually of short, pithy, articles - usually well illustrated with maps and diagrams, to illustrate particular issues and news-worthy accounts of contemporary life in the regions.
