Madhouse at the end of the world: the Belgica’s journey into the dark Antarctic night

Abstract

specific northern nations shifted their Arctic policies from the highly-militarised posture of the Cold War to encompass softer security threats in the 21st century. Russia, for example, adjusted the mandate of the Border Guard Service to include monitoring and control of fluvial sites along the northern sea route, a dynamic Alexander Sergunin outlines in his chapter on Russian Arctic realities (chapter 6). Wilfrid Greaves, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, and Andreas Osthagen addressed evolving strategic doctrines in other Arctic nations, reinforcing one of the volume’s central themes that ‘we must stop thinking of the Arctic as a single holistic place’ to understand unique national priorities (p. 13). The chapters on emerging threats (chapters 9–12) move beyond realist conceptions of security, but remain couched in the language of sovereign protection, with chapters from Petra Dolata, Gunhild Hoogensen Gjorv, Natalia Loukacheva, and Frank Sejersen. Hoogensen Gjorv argues in chapter 10 that ‘at its core, human security is concerned about how people themselves experience security and insecurity,’ [emphasis in original] (p. 206) underscoring the editors’ point that perceptions of security and sovereignty are neither fixed nor absolute. Indigenous sovereignty and security, for example, is bound up in the ability to access foods central to traditional diets and cope with effects of climate change, an idea explored in greater depth by Loukacheva in chapter 11. Although Mathieu Landriault’s media analysis of Canadian Arctic security crises (chapter 3) and P. Whitney Lackenbauer’s assessment of Canadian Arctic policies (chapter 7) read more like standalone articles than part of a cohesive edited volume, the overall thematic coherence of the book makes for a publication that is useful for Arctic students and scholars of all levels. The editors of and contributors to Breaking Through created an essential handbook for understanding security and sovereignty above the Arctic Circle. Having explored these issues from numerous angles throughout the volume, editor Wilfrid Greaves concludes with a reminder that conventional concerns of Arctic militarisation, emerging threats from global warming, and the historic political marginalisation of Indigenous groups are intrinsically bound together in shaping future challenges to Arctic sovereignty and security. Although these individual threats have typically been siloed into distinct academic or policy discussions, the contributors to this multidisciplinary volume remind readers that such divisions no longer match the Arctic’s political reality.