Arctic Voices

"One of the great strengths of Arctic Voices is that it shows how Alaska and the Arctic are tied to the places where most of us live. In this impassioned book, Banerjee shows a situation so serious that it has created a movement, where 'voices of resistance are gathering, are getting louder and louder.' May his heartfelt efforts magnify them. The climate changes that are coming have hit soon and hard in the Arctic, and their consequences may be starkest there."–Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books A pristine environment of ecological richness and biodiversity. Home to generations of indigenous people for thousands of years. The location of vast quantities of oil, natural gas and coal. Largely uninhabited and long at the margins of global affairs, in the last decade Arctic Alaska has quickly become the most contested land in recent US history. World-renowned photographer, writer, and activist Subhankar Banerjee brings together first-person narratives from more than thirty prominent activists, writers, and researchers who address issues of climate change, resource war, and human rights with stunning urgency and groundbreaking research. From Gwich'in activist Sarah James's impassioned appeal, "We Are the Ones Who Have Everything to Lose," during the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 to an original piece by acclaimed historian Dan O'Neill about his recent trips to the Yukon Flats fish camps, Arctic Voices is a window into a remarkable region. Other contributors include Seth Kantner, Velma Wallis, Nick Jans, Debbie Miller, Andri Snaer Magnason, George Schaller, George Archibald, Cindy Shogan, and Peter Matthiessen.

This book comprehensively discusses the role that non-state actors play in the Arctic and assesses the normative role of these actors. Beyond any organised forum, there are actors that have a significant impact on the way the Arctic is developed, adjudicated, managed, perceived, presented and represented. This book complements the literature on non-state actors in international law and international security, world politics and international relations and provides a geographical account of their role for the Arctic. The book content is not limited to a specific discipline, but takes into account different approaches to the topic. This means that it contains three types of contributions: research articles, shorter research notes and commentaries. While the research articles constitute the main body of the work, it is also the research notes which provide an insight into issues related to the topic of the book.

Viewing the Arctic as a key region for global development in the 21st century, this book offers a cross-disciplinary conceptual framework for understanding what international cooperation is, why it is difficult and what kind of alternative views can apply in the Arctic. Written by Arctic experts, the book presents major trends and scenarios for international cooperation in the Arctic up to 2035 and future prospects for international cooperation in the Arctic in various sectors: energy, business and economy, transportation and logistics, climate change, diplomacy and security, culture, innovations, higher education and research. Implications of the scenarios for global development are discussed in the light of the United Nations Agenda for Global Development and Sustainable Development Goals. The book offers a cross-disciplinary conceptual framework of international cooperation in the Arctic and discusses implications of this framework for global development. Filling the gap in analytical understanding of international cooperation, this book will be of interest to academics, students and professionals concerned with global development and the Arctic region.

Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the most contested landscapes in all of North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Considered sacred by Indigenous peoples in Alaska and Canada and treasured by environmentalists, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, migratory birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have sought to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. Defending the Arctic Refuge tells the improbable story of how the people fought back. At the center of the story is the unlikely figure of Lenny Kohm (1939–2014), a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who passionately committed himself to Arctic Refuge activism. With the aid of a trusty slide show, Kohm and representatives of the Gwich'in Nation traveled across the United States to mobilize grassroots opposition to oil drilling. From Indigenous villages north of the Arctic Circle to Capitol Hill and many places in between, this book shows how Kohm and Gwich'in leaders and environmental activists helped build a political movement that transformed the debate into a struggle for environmental justice. In its final weeks, the Trump administration fulfilled a long-sought dream of drilling proponents: leasing much of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain for fossil fuel development. Yet the fight to protect this place is certainly not over. Defending the Arctic Refuge traces the history of a movement that is alive today—and that will continue to galvanize diverse groups to safeguard this threatened land.

Arctic researcher, author, and photographer Norman Hallendy’s journey to the far north began in 1958, when many Inuit, who traditionally lived on the land, were moving to permanent settlements created by the Canadian government. In this unique memoir, Hallendy writes of his adventures, experiences with strange Arctic phenomena, encounters with wildlife, and deep friendships with Inuit elders. Very few have worked so closely with the Inuit to document their traditions, and, in this book, Hallendy preserves their voices and paints an incomparable portrait of a vibrant culture in a remote landscape.

Beginning with Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922), the majority of films that have been made in, about, and by filmmakers from the Arctic region have been documentary cinema. Focused on a hostile environment that few people visit, these documentaries have heavily shaped ideas about the contemporary global Far North. In Arctic Cinemas and the Documentary Ethos, contributors from a variety of scholarly and artistic backgrounds come together to provide a comprehensive study of Arctic documentary cinemas from a transnational perspective. This book offers a thorough analysis of the concept of the Arctic as it is represented in documentary filmmaking, while challenging the notion of "The Arctic" as a homogenous entity that obscures the environmental, historical, geographic, political, and cultural differences that characterize the region. By examining how the Arctic is imagined, understood, and appropriated in documentary work, the contributors argue that such films are key in contextualizing environmental, indigenous, political, cultural, sociological, and ethnographic understandings of the Arctic, from early cinema to the present. Understanding the role of these films becomes all the more urgent in the present day, as conversations around resource extraction, climate change, and sovereignty take center stage in the Arctic’s representation.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. The volume explores a question that sheds light on the contested, but largely cooperative, nature of Arctic governance in the post-Cold War period: How does power matter –and how has it mattered – in shaping cross-border cooperation and diplomacy in the Arctic? The role of power in global governance cooperation has been explored in international relations and political geography literature, yet largely overlooked in an Arctic context. Through carefully selected case studies – from Russia’s role in the Arctic Council to the diplomacy of indigenous peoples’ organizations – this book seeks to shed light on how power performances are enacted to constantly shore up Arctic cooperation in key ways. The conceptually-driven nature of the inquiry makes the book appropriate reading for courses in international relations and political geography, while the carefully selected case studies lend themselves to courses on Arctic politics.

The Arctic is a region that has seen exponential growth as a space of geopolitical interest over the past decade. This insightful book is the first to analyse the European Union’s Arctic policy endeavours of the early 21st Century from a critical geopolitical perspective.

Lessons from the Arctic: The Role of Regional Government in International Affairs is a collection of articles written by twenty-six leading and emerging scholars from across the circumpolar region. Each author assesses and explores the processes of regional governance in the Arctic from an interdisciplinary perspective. The topics include Indigenous internationalism, paradiplomacy, federalism, global institution-building, and more.