Foreword
Arctic Policies of Non-Arctic States is a welcoming addition to the existing studies on the engagement in the Arctic governance of those nations that do not have land territories above the Arctic Circle, the non-Arctic States. This volume has its distinct added values. First, it includes examination of the impacts or otherwise of the February 2022 and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Arctic policies of 10 nations covered (three Asian States added from Chapter 1). Second, it provides detailed examination of the policies of those non-Arctic States less prominent in previous studies: Belgium, Greece, and Latvia. Finally, this volume is ably edited as well as many of its chapters written by early to mid-career scholars, providing fresh insights into the subject matter.
According to the editors, this volume tries to provide “a snapshot” of different perspectives of the Arctic being retrieved from the Arctic-related policies and activities of 10 non-Arctic States from Europe and Asia (Preface, p. viii). This editorial policy is well reflected in its ordering of its chapters based on the alphabetical order of the names of non-Arctic States being examined; and the book has succeeded in achieving this modest objective. An in-depth and panoramic reading of this book, however, will enable the reader to tease out a few recurring and intersecting themes: a historically and strategically defined relationship of each of those non-Arctic States with the Russian Federation and the United States, the two giants in Arctic governance; and the relative dependencies on the resources and their trade, both marine living and mineral, from the wider Arctic region including those areas under the jurisdiction of the eight Arctic States.
This insight gained from this book unavoidably leads to an academic appetite to analyze the potential impact of a more recent challenge coming from the other Arctic giant, the United States, under the second Trump administration on the Arctic policies of non-Arctic States. This, of course, must await the follow-up volume, hopefully from the same editors, in this Brill’s Studies in Polar Law series.
Akiho Shibata
Cherry blossoming Kobe, Japan, 1 April 2025