Independence on the Horizon: A Study of the Interplay Between Sovereignty and Natural Resources in Greenland

• Main Author: Erdal, Lisa
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Fridtjof Nansens Institute
• Subjects: Indigenous Peoples; Law and Policy; Projects; Sustainable Development; Arctic; Greenland; greenlandic
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/1754/; http://library.arcticportal.org/1754/1/FNI_R0613.pdf

This report explores the Greenlandic government’s recent strategies to establish large-scale extractive industries in its territory, focusing especially on Greenland’s developing ties to the EU, China and South Korea. The report links the Greenlandic government’s international outreach to the territory’s aspirations for full independence from Denmark, showing how mounting international interest in Arctic resources serves to strengthen the idea of Greenland as a independent actor. The aim of this report is to highlight how the creation of a sovereign image is at the centre of state-building efforts in Greenland, and how, by taking advantage of the mounting global interest in the Arctic, Greenland is able to effectively increase its international agency. This report takes a constructive approach to sovereignty, and the work of Cynthia Weber and Thomas Biersteker forms its theoretical core.