Permafrost, Science, and Security: Producing Climate (Non)Knowledge in a Thawing City

Abstract

This paper asks how and by whom knowledge on permafrost thaw is produced, and how politics is implicated in this (non)knowledge production. Through interviews and fieldwork in Fairbanks, Alaska, the paper argues that knowledge production on climate change should interest International Relations (IR) much more than it does. What is at stake is IR's ability to discern which political actors and priorities affect our knowledge of climate change. An analytical shift of perspective is necessary to better grasp the politics of climate science, and this begins with an analytical focus on the knowledge production itself, including analytical attention to the role of nonknowledge. Towards this, the article draws on Ignorance Studies to identify types of nonknowledge present in permafrost science in Fairbanks. An important insight from the fieldwork and interviews, however, is that nonknowledge has a social function; it ties together civilian and military permafrost knowledge producers across institutional divides in their efforts to understand permafrost. As Arctic and global politics head towards a more competitive state—and as climatic changes accelerate—a consequence of this symbiosis could be that civilian scientists increasingly come to prioritize climate knowledge in strategically important locations, exactly because this symbiosis is based on nonknowledge.