TY - JOUR

T1 - Greenland's Arctic advantage

T2 - Articulations, acts and appearances of sovereignty games

AU - Jacobsen, Marc

PY - 2019/10/23

Y1 - 2019/10/23

N2 - Greenland representatives successfully use the renewed international geostrategic interest in the Arctic to enhance Greenland’s foreign policy sovereignty. This is facilitated by Denmark’s dependence on Greenland’s geographic location and continuous membership of the Danish Realm for maintaining the status of an Arctic state, which recently has become one of the five most important security and foreign policy priorities. The dependency gives Greenland an ‘Arctic advantage’ in negotiations with Denmark, while turning circumpolar events into strategic arenas for sovereignty games in the aim to move the boundary of what Greenland may do internationally without Danish involvement. This article analyzes how these games unfold in the Arctic Council, at the high-level Ilulissat meetings and at circumpolar conferences where Greenland representatives articulate, act and appear more foreign policy sovereignty through outspoken discontent, tacit gestures and symbolic alterations. Altogether, this contributes to the expanding of Greenland’s foreign policy room for maneuver within the current legal frameworks, while enhancing Greenland’s international status and attracting external investments, important in their striving towards becoming a state with full formal Westphalian sovereignty.

AB - Greenland representatives successfully use the renewed international geostrategic interest in the Arctic to enhance Greenland’s foreign policy sovereignty. This is facilitated by Denmark’s dependence on Greenland’s geographic location and continuous membership of the Danish Realm for maintaining the status of an Arctic state, which recently has become one of the five most important security and foreign policy priorities. The dependency gives Greenland an ‘Arctic advantage’ in negotiations with Denmark, while turning circumpolar events into strategic arenas for sovereignty games in the aim to move the boundary of what Greenland may do internationally without Danish involvement. This article analyzes how these games unfold in the Arctic Council, at the high-level Ilulissat meetings and at circumpolar conferences where Greenland representatives articulate, act and appear more foreign policy sovereignty through outspoken discontent, tacit gestures and symbolic alterations. Altogether, this contributes to the expanding of Greenland’s foreign policy room for maneuver within the current legal frameworks, while enhancing Greenland’s international status and attracting external investments, important in their striving towards becoming a state with full formal Westphalian sovereignty.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Greenland

KW - Denmark

KW - Arctic

KW - International Relations

KW - sovereignty

KW - Sovereignty games

KW - diplomacy

KW - paradiplomacy

KW - Governance

KW - Sub-state actors

KW - Quasi states

KW - discourse analysis

KW - Ethnography

KW - Grønland

KW - Danmark

KW - Arktis

KW - Suverænitet

KW - Suverænitetsspil

KW - diplomati

KW - international politik

KW - governance

KW - paradiplomati

KW - diskursanalyse

KW - etnografi

UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010836719882476

U2 - 10.1177/0010836719882476

DO - 10.1177/0010836719882476

M3 - Journal article

SP - 1

JO - Cooperation and Conflict

JF - Cooperation and Conflict

SN - 0010-8367

M1 - 1

ER -