Science as Arbitrator on Arctic Land-Use Issues: A Historical Appraisal

Abstract

The article offers a historical review of the practice of prioritizing scientific advice in land-use policies of the Arctic. It uses the high-arctic Svalbard archipelago as its main case study. It articulates the need for historians to contribute insights into the ways scientific communities have set much of the international agenda of Arctic and Antarctic matters over the last century. From a cultural heritage standpoint, today’s situation on Svalbard illustrates some problems of the currently widely accepted ideas of global (Arctic) governance. The author raises the question whether the idea of a globally governed Circumarctic based on scientific diplomacy, will not result in a “sectorally” divided High North — a future that, as Arctic historians know, has a past in Arctic geopolitics from which lessons can be learned.