Tribe-state collaboration and the future of arctic cooperation: Moderating Inter-State Competition through Collaborative Multilevel Governance, from Yesterday’s Trading Posts to Today’s Arctic Council, ‘Arctic Exceptionalism’ is Here to Stay

Abstract

ABSTRACT A long history of collaboration between the indigenous peoples and the sovereign states of Arctic North America has helped the Arctic region become one of the world’s most stable and cooperative regions, dating as far back as the colonial era’s chartered companies and the network of northern trading posts they established, and continuing into contemporary times with the introduction of new institutions for self-governance at the domestic level, and for diplomatic collaboration at the international level through the Arctic Council. This stability has yielded a widely recognised spirit of international collaboration often referred to as ‘Arctic Exceptionalism.’ This exceptionalism has come under new pressures from the recent shift towards great power competition in the Arctic, as articulated in revised diplomatic and strategic policies of numerous states with Arctic interests and/or aspirations, in notable contrast to prior decades of an explicit mutual commitment to Arctic collaboration. This long history of economic integration and globalisation, dating back to the days of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and Russian America Company (RAC), has established an enduring foundation for the region’s continued stability, sustained by the dynamic and increasingly frequent interactions between indigenous peoples and sovereign states, from the very first trading posts to today’s globalised mix of multinational and native-owned corporations borne of the Arctic land claims experience.