Controlling the Northern Seas: The Influence of Exclusive Economic Zones on the Development of Norwegian, Danish, and Canadian Naval Forces ...

• Main Author: Choi, Timothy Hiu-Tung
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Arts 2022
• Subjects: maritime security; UNCLOS; Exclusive Economic Zone; EEZ; Royal Canadian Navy; Royal Danish Navy; Royal Norwegian Navy; seapower; sea power; naval strategy; maritime strategy; NATO; Arctic; climate change; Cold War; navies; coast guard; sjøforsvaret; søværnet; small navies; sea control; offshore patrol vessels; North Atlantic; Svalbard; Iceland; Greenland; History > Modern; History > Canadian; History > Military; Military Studies; Political Science > International Law and Relations; Climate change
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/40544; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/115610

The military challenge of climate change in the Arctic is often centered upon resource access within Arctic states' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). There is thus a need to understand how those states' naval forces have responded to EEZ creation during the Cold War and their consequences through the present day. Examining the navies of Norway, Denmark, and Canada, this dissertation asks how the EEZ directly and indirectly affected their force structures and sea control operations and whether smaller navies consistently differ from larger one, which tackles the dearth of literature on smaller navies and peacetime naval operations. This dissertation finds that while all three Arctic states created and exploited the 200 NM zones, only Norway developed notably increased constabulary seapower inputs for controlling its blue water offshore area. For Denmark, its colonial territories in the North Atlantic meant its navy already had the constabulary fleet and organizational infrastructure necessary to control its EEZ ...