China’s Efforts to Control the Arctic Rimland: A New Cold War

PDF (English)
Pubblicato: Dec 29, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/hapscpbs.29501
Marina Fragkouli
Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus, Greece
Abstract

In 2018, China released the much-expected White Paper and its Arctic policy in the region. China foresees the economic opportunities and realizes the territorial challenges as it seeks an active role in the Arctic opening. The White Paper outlines China’s aspirations and strategies to develop the Polar Silk Road across the Arctic Ocean. As a non-Arctic state and without a claim of territory, China will likely have to rely on cooperation and invitation of Arctic states so as to advance its interests in that area. This policy brief outlines China’s interests in the region as well as the socio-economic and environmental challenges that will be called to manage. Moreover, it examines the probability to be declared a greater Arctic player through the emergence of the Polar Silk Road and possible shifts in the current status quo and the balance of power in the region. Thus, taking all these into account it briefly suggests four possible measures.

Article Details
  • Sezione
  • Articles
Creative Commons License

TQuesto lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Downloads
I dati di download non sono ancora disponibili.
Biografia autore
Marina Fragkouli, Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus, Greece
Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus, Greece
Riferimenti bibliografici
AMAP (1997). Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environment Report. Arctic monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. Available at: https://www.amap.no/documents/doc/arctic-pollution-issues-a-state-of-the-arctic-environment-report/67 (Accessed: 26/10/2021).
Amatulli G. (2017). The role of China in the Arctic: challenges and opportunities for a sustainable development of the region. Jindal Global Law Review, 8(1), 103–110.
Assef, N. (2018). China's Polar Silk Road: Overview, Challenges & Opportunities. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3179218 (Accessed: 23/10/2021)
Biedermann, R. (2020). China’s impact on the European Union’s Arctic policy: critical junctures, crossovers, and geographic shifts. Asia Europe Journal, 1-21.
Blunden, M. (2012). Geopolitics and the Northern Sea Route. International Affairs, 88(1), 115-129.
Brady, A. (2019). China as a rising polar power: What it means for Canada. A Macdonald-Laurier Institute Publication.
Chater, A. (2016). Explaining Non-Arctic States in the Arctic Council. Strategic Analysis, 40(3), 173-184.
Eiiterjord TA (2019). China’s busy year in the Arctic. The Diplomat. Available at: https://thediplomat.com/2019/01/chinas-busy-year-in-the-arctic/ (Accessed: 29/10/2021).
European Commission (2021). Questions and answers on the EU's Arctic Strategy. European Commission. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_21_5164 (Accessed: 22/10/2021).
Havnes, H. (2020). The Polar Silk Road and the People’s Republic of China’s role in Arctic governance. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 4(1).
Heininen, L. (2020). Before Climate Change, ‘Nuclear Safety’ Was There—A Retrospective Study and Lessons Learned of Changing Security Premises in the Arctic. In: Heininen, L. & Pirot, H. (eds). Climate Change and Arctic Security-Searching for a Paradigm Shift. Palgrave Macmillan, 107-129. Available at : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20230-9 (Accessed 22/10/2021).
Heininen, L., Everett, K., Padrtova, B. & Reissell, A. (2020). Arctic Policies and Strategies-Analysis, Synthesis, and Trends. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria. Available at: 10.22022/AFI/11-2019.16175 (Accessed: 22/10/2021).
Isla H. Myers-Smith, Jeffrey T. Kerby, Sonja Wipf (2020) Complexity revealed in the greening of the Arctic. Nature Climate Change, 10, 106–117.
Koivurova, T., Kokko, K., Duyck, S., Sellheim, N., & Stepien, A. (2011). The present and future competence of the European Union in the Arctic. Polar Record, 48(4), 1 - 11.
Lanteigne, M. (2014). China’s Emerging Arctic Strategies: Economics and Institutions. University of Iceland Press. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/285164 (Accessed: 22/10/2021).
Lim, K. S. (2018). China's Arctic Policy and the Polar Silk Road Vision. In Heininen, L. & Exner-Pirot, H. (Eds.) Arctic Yearbook 2018, 420-432, Northern Research Forum. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3603710 (Accessed: 22/10/2021).
Lin, S., Sidaway, J., & Woon, C. (2019). Reordering China, Respacing the World: Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路) as an Emergent Geopolitical Culture. The Professional Geographer, 71(3), 507-522.
Lindsey, R., & Scott, M. (2020). Climate Change: Arctic Sea ice summer minimum. Climate.gov. Available at: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-arctic-sea-ice-summer-minimum (Accessed: 12/11/2021).
Miller, M., & Hildenbrand, A. (2019). Perspectives from the Arctic as a Strategic Space: Geopolitics of the Northern Flank. The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, 38. Available at: https://www.marshallcenter.org/en/publications/security-insights/perspectives-arctic-strategic-space-geopolitics-northern-flank-0 (Accessed: 22/10/2021).
NASA Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet (2021). Arctic Sea Ice Minimum. Climate.nasa.com. Available at: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/ (Accessed: 22/10/2021).
Offerdal, K. (2011). The EU in the Arctic: In pursuit of legitimacy and influence. International Journal, 66(4), 861–877.
Østhagen, A. (2019). The New Geopolitics of the Arctic: Russia, China and the EU. Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, 18(2), 259-259.
Oxford Analytica (2018). Polar Silk Road will reshape trade and geopolitics. Dailybrief.oxan.com. Available at: https://dailybrief.oxan.com/Analysis/DB238508/Polar-Silk-Road-will-reshape-trade-and-geopolitics (Accessed: 24/10/2021).
Pelaudeix, C. (2018). Along the Road China in the Arctic. European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), 13/2018. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep21468 (Accessed: 22/10/ 2021)
Peng J.& Wegge N. (2015). China’s bilateral diplomacy in the Arctic. Polar Geography, 38(3), 233-249.
Phoenix, G., & Jerke, J. (2016). Arctic browning: extreme events and trends reversing arctic greening. Global Change Biology, 22, 2960-2962.
Stroeve, J., & Notz, D. (2015). Insights on past and future sea-ice evolution from combining observations and models. Global and Planetary Change, 135, 19-132.
Tillman, H., Yang, J., & Nielsson, E. (2018). The Polar Silk Road: China’s New Frontier of International Cooperation. China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies, 4(3), 345-362.