China’s ascent in global governance and the Arctic

Abstract

The paper explains the tendency of China’s Arctic policy by locating it in general patterns of China’s uneven rise in global governance across fields. Among the four major pathways of China’s enhanced participation in global governance, the Arctic case is best explained by the ‘push in’ pathway, where a significant increase of lobbying and engaging activities can be found. The paper highlights that the Arctic is an issue area where China will experiment with new tactics to exert influence on the reform of the existing multilateral institutions and to promote its own normative principles for global governance.