Britain And The Arctic

British interest in the Arctic has returned to heights not seen since the end of the Cold War; concerns about climate change, resources, trade, and national security are all impacted by profound environmental and geopolitical changes happening in the Arctic. Duncan Depledge investigates the increasing geopolitical significance of the Arctic and explores why it took until now for Britain – once an ‘Arctic state’ itself – to notice how close it is to these changes, what its contemporary interests in the region are, and whether the British government’s response in the arenas of science, defence, and commerce is enough. This book will be of interest to both academics and practitioners seeking to understand contemporary British interest and activity in the Arctic.

The Arctic region has been the subject of much popular writing. This book considers nineteenth-century representations of the Arctic, and draws upon an extensive range of evidence that will allow the 'widest connections' to emerge from a 'cross-disciplinary analysis' using different methodologies and subject matter. It positions the Arctic alongside more thoroughly investigated theatres of Victorian enterprise. In the nineteenth century, most images were in the form of paintings, travel narratives, lectures given by the explorers themselves and photographs. The book explores key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations through text, painting and photography. For much of the nineteenth century, national and regional geographical societies promoted exploration, and rewarded heroic endeavor. The book discusses images of the Arctic which originated in the activities of the geographical societies. The Times provided very low-key reporting of Arctic expeditions, as evidenced by its coverage of the missions of Sir John Franklin and James Clark Ross. However, the illustrated weekly became one of the main sources of popular representations of the Arctic. The book looks at the exhibitions of Arctic peoples, Arctic exploration and Arctic fauna in Britain. Late nineteenth-century exhibitions which featured the Arctic were essentially nostalgic in tone. The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, published in 1900, drew on adult representations of the Arctic and will have confirmed and reinforced children's perceptions of the region. Text books, board games and novels helped to keep the subject alive among the young.

Visitors to the Arctic enter places that have been traditionally imagined as otherworldly. This strangeness fascinated audiences in nineteenth-century Britain when the idea of the heroic explorer voyaging through unmapped zones reached its zenith. The Spectral Arctic re-thinks our understanding of Arctic exploration by paying attention to the importance of dreams and ghosts in the quest for the Northwest Passage. The narratives of Arctic exploration that we are all familiar with today are just the tip of the iceberg: they disguise a great mass of mysterious and dimly lit stories beneath the surface. In contrast to oft-told tales of heroism and disaster, this book reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who travelled to the Arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives, and fictional texts, these spectral stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the far North in the past. This revisionist historical account allows us to make sense of current cultural and political concerns in the Canadian Arctic about the location of Franklin’s ships.

The Arctic and the accounts of its exploration and heroes fascinated people in Victorian Britain. But how was this distant region represented to them? Which stories had lasting appeal and which were soon forgotten? How were the indigenous people represented, and what difficulties confronted the artist, photographer and engraver in depicting the Arctic? How and why did the images and forms of representation change during the nineteenth century? As Robert David tells is in this fascinating book, Britain's imagined Arctic was created through a staggering variety of representations: from travel narratives to works of art and panoramas, from museum, displays, tableaux vivants, and international exhibitions, to engravings in the illustrated press, as well as lectures organised by the geographical societies, school text books and adventure stories for children. There were also numerous cartoons, advertisements and board games, all of which fed the obsession. In this epic study of so many forms of representation over an extended time span, David has been able to reassess the whole nature of Arctic representation and how it changed in importance over time. Using this rich material in illuminating new ways, he argues that Arctic representations followed a different dynamic from those associated with more familiar locations of Empire, and so opens up a whole new area of study and discussion. 'The Arctic in the British imagination' is illustrated with engravings, photographs and paintings drawn from a number of sources and in many cases not previously published. The book will be of essential interest to academics, students and enthusiasts interested in the Arctic, as well as historians of representations.

The second edition of A Fabulous Kingdom will explain the history of the arctic and describe the current scientific and environmental issues that threaten this fascinating region.

This book examines the growing interest by Asian states, which are normally considered as ‘outsiders’ in the Arctic governance system. Whilst existing research asserts that Asian states are mostly interested in the economic aspect of the changing Arctic, including its mineral and fossil sources and the opening up of new sea routes, the book argues that the relation between Asian states and the Arctic is much more complex and dynamic, grounded in their unique perspective on national security and the role of economic development in securing their national interests.

This document sets out the UK government's overall approach to the Arctic, and provides an update to the Arctic policy framework.