ISBN: 978-0-472-05670-5
Andreas Østhagen
Fridtjof Nansen Institute
Arctic security studies are plagued by broad generalisations with little knowledge about issues in specific parts of a region that covers four percent of the globe. This open access book aims at moving beyond these generalizations while staying relevant to broader debates on Arctic security and international relations. It emphasizes a deeper understanding of Greenland's role in global issues, from great power rivalries (Trump's tweet about purchasing Greenland in response to Chinese interests) to climate change (the impact of the melting Greenlandic ice sheet), and the complexities of Danish-Greenlandic relations (who controls the foreign policy narrative.) With 11 chapters, including six co-authored by Marc Jacobsen, the book is remarkably cohesive for an edited volume. The concept of ‘securitization’, a central element in the so-called Copenhagen School of International Relations that emerged in the 1990s, is the frame that guides the chapters and the book’s approach to explaining and understanding Greenlandic security issues and how these issues relate wider notion of Arctic, North American, and European security. Beyond offering the most thorough review of contemporary security relations concerning Greenland – often poorly understood, even by most the Danes – the primary novelty of this book (and especially the introduction and the conclusion) is the thorough engagement with security theories emanating from the Copenhagen School. The editors offer highly interesting specifications of theories concerning securitization and desecuritization and also engage in a debate about regional security complexes. For a part of the globe that in fact comprises of several sub-regions (security sub-complexes, if you will), offering a more nuanced view of Arctic security and analysis levels represents a significant advancement in Arctic international relations studies.