Arctic Futures. Expectations, Interests, Claims, and the Making of Arctic Territory

• Main Author: Andersson, Jenny
• Other Authors: Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée (Sciences Po, CNRS) (CEE), Sciences Po (Sciences Po)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre d'histoire de Sciences Po (Sciences Po) (CHSP), Sciences Po (Sciences Po), Jens Beckert, Richard Bronk
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: Arctic de-icing; expectations; future making; geopolitics; interests; scenarios; [SHS.SCIPO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Political science; Arctic; Northeast Passage
• Online Access: https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02396118

The Arctic region is the site of a geopolitical scramble for two major future assets: the opening up of the Northeast Passage and access to enormous gas reserves. Meanwhile, many other possible futures define the ongoing struggle to establish claims to the Arctic among a variety of ‘Arctic nations’, including the rights of indigenous people, the preservation of pristine nature, future tourism, and the reestablishing of historical connections with previous colonizing countries in Scandinavia and Russia. The chapter discusses a wide repertoire of future making, including scenario gaming, forecast technologies, and forms of nation branding used as geopolitical instruments for defining expectations and future interests in the Arctic. At a theoretical level, the chapter examines the mutual constitution of imaginaries and interests and highlights ways in which actors attempt to ‘close’ the future by establishing the dominance of particular expectations or scenarios that suit their interests.