Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering
The Arctic has been identified by scientists as a relatively promising venue for controversial ‘solar geoengineering’ – technical schemes to reflect more sunlight to counteract global warming. Yet contemporary regional security dynamics and the relative (in)significance of climate concerns among the...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/00108367241269629 2024-09-15T17:52:51+00:00 Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering Kornbech, Nikolaj Corry, Olaf McLaren, Duncan Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00108367241269629 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00108367241269629 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/00108367241269629 en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Cooperation and Conflict ISSN 0010-8367 1460-3691 journal-article 2024 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/00108367241269629 2024-08-27T04:24:38Z The Arctic has been identified by scientists as a relatively promising venue for controversial ‘solar geoengineering’ – technical schemes to reflect more sunlight to counteract global warming. Yet contemporary regional security dynamics and the relative (in)significance of climate concerns among the key Arctic states suggest a different conclusion. By systematically juxtaposing recently published schemes for Arctic geoengineering with Arctic security strategies published by the littoral Arctic states and China, we reveal and detail two conflicting security imaginaries. Geoengineering schemes scientifically securitise (and seek to maintain) the Arctic’s ‘great white shield’ to protect ‘global’ humanity against climate tipping points and invoke a past era of Arctic ‘exceptionality’ to suggest greater political feasibility for research interventions here. Meanwhile, state security imaginaries understand the contemporary Arctic as an increasingly contested region of considerable geopolitical peril and economic opportunity as temperatures rise. Alongside the entangled history of science with geopolitics in the region, this suggests that geoengineering schemes in the Arctic are unlikely to follow scientific visions, and unless co-opted into competitive, extractivist state security imaginaries, may prove entirely infeasible. Moreover, if the Arctic is the ‘best-case’ for geoengineering politics, this places a huge question mark over the feasibility of other, more global prospects. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Global warming SAGE Publications Cooperation and Conflict |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications |
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English |
description |
The Arctic has been identified by scientists as a relatively promising venue for controversial ‘solar geoengineering’ – technical schemes to reflect more sunlight to counteract global warming. Yet contemporary regional security dynamics and the relative (in)significance of climate concerns among the key Arctic states suggest a different conclusion. By systematically juxtaposing recently published schemes for Arctic geoengineering with Arctic security strategies published by the littoral Arctic states and China, we reveal and detail two conflicting security imaginaries. Geoengineering schemes scientifically securitise (and seek to maintain) the Arctic’s ‘great white shield’ to protect ‘global’ humanity against climate tipping points and invoke a past era of Arctic ‘exceptionality’ to suggest greater political feasibility for research interventions here. Meanwhile, state security imaginaries understand the contemporary Arctic as an increasingly contested region of considerable geopolitical peril and economic opportunity as temperatures rise. Alongside the entangled history of science with geopolitics in the region, this suggests that geoengineering schemes in the Arctic are unlikely to follow scientific visions, and unless co-opted into competitive, extractivist state security imaginaries, may prove entirely infeasible. Moreover, if the Arctic is the ‘best-case’ for geoengineering politics, this places a huge question mark over the feasibility of other, more global prospects. |
author2 |
Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kornbech, Nikolaj Corry, Olaf McLaren, Duncan |
spellingShingle |
Kornbech, Nikolaj Corry, Olaf McLaren, Duncan Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
author_facet |
Kornbech, Nikolaj Corry, Olaf McLaren, Duncan |
author_sort |
Kornbech, Nikolaj |
title |
Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
title_short |
Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
title_full |
Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
title_fullStr |
Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
title_full_unstemmed |
Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
title_sort |
securing the ‘great white shield’? climate change, arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00108367241269629 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00108367241269629 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/00108367241269629 |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming |
op_source |
Cooperation and Conflict ISSN 0010-8367 1460-3691 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00108367241269629 |
container_title |
Cooperation and Conflict |
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1810294874051706880 |