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The Arctic (Council) In, Through and Despite Practice

Institutions
Political Theory
Regionalism
Security
Constructivism
Critical Theory
Global
Post-Structuralism
Sebastian Knecht
Freie Universität Berlin
Sebastian Knecht
Freie Universität Berlin

Abstract

The degree to which the Arctic has remained a politically stable, peaceful and cooperative region since the end of the Cold War, continues to take many observers by surprise. Notions of an ‘Arctic exceptionalism’ in international relations are spreading, referring to the state of ‘a unique region detached, and encapsulated, from global political dynamics, and thus characterized primarily as an apolitical space of regional governance, functional cooperation, and peaceful co-existence’ (Käpylä and Mikkola 2015). However, research on Arctic exceptionalism is empirically, theoretically and methodologically an at impasse. Empirically, the cooperative record in the region is much more diversified than exceptionalists would probably admit. Theoretically, research has made recourse to conventional IR theories to explain this variance in regional cooperation, with overall inconclusive results. Lastly, if the Arctic is methodologically an outlier case in international regionalism, it may defy the explanatory power of conventional IR theories altogether, and past research would have used flawed designs to make sense of Arctic governance. This paper attempts to intervene into the ontological and epistemological premises with which we study Arctic affairs. Paying special attention to collaborative mechanisms within the Arctic Council system, the paper proposes to take up the recent practice turn in IR to study micro-processes of Arctic cooperation and how the Arctic order has been preserved in, through and despite practice.