Between Security and Sovereignty : Denmark’s Arctic Conundrum Amidst Trump’s New Cold War

• Main Author: Sigrist, Jonathan
• Other Authors: Helsingin yliopisto, Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Helsingfors universitet, Statsvetenskapliga fakulteten
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2021
• Subjects: Arctic; Denmark; United States; Cold War; Securitization; Militarization; Region-Building; China; Russia; NATO; Euroopan ja pohjoismaiden tutkimuksen maisteriohjelma (European and Nordic Studies); Master's Programme in European and Nordic Studies; Magisterprogrammet i Europa- och Nordenstudier; Social Sciences Study Track; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; Northern Sea Route; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/334047

This thesis analyses the development of Danish foreign and security policy towards the Arctic ever since the end of the Second World War up until today. It draws primarily on Denmark’s relation to the United States, having been Denmark’s main ally for the last 75 years on all security related matters - but especially since the end of the Cold War. Both Denmark and the US are considered Arctic coastal states, with Denmark accessing the Arctic ocean through its sovereign claim over Greenland, and the US through the state of Alaska. The thesis supports other scholarly studies that argue that a ‘new Cold War’ has been taking place in the years following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016 between the US, China and Russia, with potentially grave ramifications for Arctic regional security, given its growing importance as a region for resource extraction and commercial passage through the Northern Sea Route. For Denmark, this new Cold War threatens its sovereign claim over Greenland – a crucial geostrategic location for a potential Arctic militarization - being challenged as a small nation by the great power competitions accelerating in the Arctic. The thesis divides the last 75 years into three categorized eras: 1) The Cold War (1945-1991); 2) The post-Cold War era (1991-2017); 3) The ‘new Cold War’ as a developing era (2017 - denoted in the thesis), and analyses for each era the fundamentals of Denmark – US relations, first providing a more general overview of their political relations as security partners on non-Arctic related matters, in order to then draw parallels to the development of Denmark – US relations in the Arctic and their roles as state actors in shaping the geopolitical climate of the region. As I show, a lot can be learned from the Cold War to understand what is and may happen in the Arctic in the new Cold War. The thesis makes use of foreign policy analysis, as well as two variations of discourse analysis – poststructuralist discourse analysis and critical ...