Arctic Yearbook 2014
396
30. For the US Department of Defense’s Arctic strategy published in November 2013, see
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/2013_Arctic_Strategy.pdf.
31. The ‘Arctic five’ held Ministerial meetings at Ilulissat, Greenland, in 2008 and near
Ottawa, Canada, in 2010.
32. Texts
available
at
http://www.arctic-council.org/index.php/en/documentarchive/category/20-main-documents-from-nuuk,
and
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/05/209406.htm, respectively.
33. The EU Arctic policy documents most frequently cited in the literature were issued by
the European Parliament and Commission and so do not bind the Member States, but
the Council did issue policy conclusions in 2009 as well in 2014 on the basis of the
Commission’s 2008 and 2012 submissions – see
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/11181
4.pdf.
34. For comparison, the EU gets only brief coverage in other national strategies aside from
Finland’s (the 2010 version, see
http://www.geopoliticsnorth.org/images/stories/attachments/Finland.pdf), but the
German document (note 9 above) states as the last of its guiding principles that Germany
‘supports an active Arctic policy by the European Union and is committed to ensure
horizontal coherence in (the Union’s) foreign and security policy and in the policy fields
of research, environment protection, energy and natural resources, industry and
technology, transport and fisheries.’ (Author’s translation). The downplaying of the EU
in the British text may variously reflect a currently Eurosceptical British government; a
wish not to inflame anti-EU sentiment in some AC (e.g. Canadian indigenous) circles;
and a sense that the EU’s Arctic policies and role are still a work in progress.
35. See
http://www.arctic-council.org/index.php/en/resources/news-and-press/newsarchive/782-the-task-force-for-action-on-black-carbon-and-methane.
36. ‘The Council expresses its readiness to consider a proposal to put in place a regulatory
framework for the part of the seas not yet covered by an international conservation
system by extending the mandate of relevant Regional Fisheries Management
Organisations or any other proposal to that effect agreed by the relevant parties. Until
such a framework is in place, the Council favours a temporary ban on new fisheries in
those waters.’ Op. cit. at note 33 above, p. 3.
37. The AC’s Kiruna Ministerial meeting agreed to establish a Circumpolar Business Forum
which is expected among other things to discuss responsible business governance in the
region.
See
http://www.arctic-council.org/index.php/en/resources/news-andpress/news-archive/732-press-release-15-may-kiruna.
38. ‘Norway’s new government drops Lofoten oil’, Barents Observer 1 October 2013, available
at http://barentsobserver.com/en/politics/2013/10/norways-new-government-dropslofoten-oil-01-10.
39. An incident of cruise ship stranding in December 2013 has exacerbated these debates;
see e.g. ‘Antarctica expedition: are research and tourism a toxic mix?’, Christian Science
Bailes