International Governance in the Arctic - The Development of Cooperation, Challenges and Division of Opinions

• Main Author: Ægisdóttir, Eva Björg
• Other Authors: Hermansen, John Eilif
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: NTNU 2015
• Subjects: Globalization; Global Politics and Culture; Arctic; Arctic biodiversity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2383595

In this thesis the development of governance and cooperation in the Arctic is discussed. The main goal is to provide an overview of the current and future challenges in terms of governance in the realm of International Relation theories and globalization. This is of great importance today as the Arctic is going through turbulent times in terms of governance and many have discussed the need to strengthen the regulatory frameworks. The thesis consists of two parts. In the latter part a study conducted in the spring 2015 is presented. A questionnaire was sent out to participants of the Arctic Biodiversity Congress 2014. The aim of the study was to outline the division of opinions and attitudes towards Arctic governance discussed in the former part. The results from the study confirm that opinions and attitudes towards international governance in the Arctic are very divided. Using multiple indicators to create a composite variable showed that attitude towards Arctic governance was slightly more negative than positive. The thesis concludes that the development has been towards cooperation and that conflict is unlikely in the Arctic. However there are many conflicting opinions, producing great challenges for the future of international governance in the Arctic.