On Thin Ice explores the relationship between the Inuit and the modern state in the vast but lightly populated North American Arctic. It chronicles the aspiration of the Inuit to participate in the formation and implementation of diplomatic and national security policies across the Arctic region and to contribute to the reconceptualization of Arctic Security, including the redefinition of the core values inherent in northern defense policy. With the warming of the Earth's climate, the Arctic rim states have paid increasing attention to the commercial opportunities, strategic challenges, and environmental risks of climate change. As the long isolation of the Arctic comes to an end, the Inuit who are indigenous to the region are showing tremendous diplomatic and political skills as they continue to work with the more populous states that assert sovereign control over the Arctic in an effort to mutually assert joint sovereignty across the region Published on the 50th anniversary of Ken Waltz's classic Man, the State and War, Zellen's On Thin Ice is at once a tribute to Waltz's elucidation of the three levels of analysis as well as an enhancement of his famous "Three Images," with the addition of a new "Fourth Image" to describe a tribal level of analysis. This model remains salient in not only the Arctic where modern state sovereignty remains limited, but in many other conflict zones where tribal peoples retain many attributes of their indigenous sovereignty.
On Thin Ice explores the relationship between the Inuit and the modern state in the vast but lightly populated North American Arctic. It chronicles the aspiration of the Inuit to participate in the formation and implementation of diplomatic and national security policies across the Arctic region and to contribute to the reconceptualization of Arctic Security, including the redefinition of the core values inherent in northern defense policy. With the warming of the Earth's climate, the Arctic rim states have paid increasing attention to the commercial opportunities, strategic challenges, and environmental risks of climate change. As the long isolation of the Arctic comes to an end, the Inuit who are indigenous to the region are showing tremendous diplomatic and political skills as they continue to work with the more populous states that assert sovereign control over the Arctic in an effort to mutually assert joint sovereignty across the region Published on the 50th anniversary of Ken Waltz's classic Man, the State and War, Zellen's On Thin Ice is at once a tribute to Waltz's elucidation of the three levels of analysis as well as an enhancement of his famous "Three Images," with the addition of a new "Fourth Image" to describe a tribal level of analysis. This model remains salient in not only the Arctic where modern state sovereignty remains limited, but in many other conflict zones where tribal peoples retain many attributes of their indigenous sovereignty.
Chapter 1 Preface: Beyond the Ice Fog Chapter 2 Chapter 1. Northern Perspectives on Arctic Sovereignty Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Southern Perspectives on Arctic Sovereignty Chapter 4 Chapter 3. Toward a Synthesis of Tribe and State
Barry Scott Zellen is research director of the Arctic Security Project at the Center for Contemporary Conflict at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Barry Scott Zellen poses tough questions about Canada's own claims
to a vast swathe of the soon-to-be hotly contested resource-rich
Arctic. Zellen not only shows how much these depend on whether a
collaborative and interdependent relationship can be successfully
forged with Native peoples struggling to preserve fragile
ecosystems and their own ethnic identity, but how conceptions of
human security, tribal security and national security are
inexorably tied together. Zellen's keen insight and painstaking
research suggests that truths from the land of the midnight sun
might illuminate and guide the struggles of indigenous peoples
around the globe. A must read for the 21st century.
*Martin Edwin Andersen, author of Peoples of the Earth:
Ethnonationalism, Democracy, and the Indigenous Challenge in Latin
America*
From the Afterword of On Thin Ice: As Barry Zellen poignantly
reminds us in this book, the Arctic is no longer a no-man's land of
interest only to missionaries, military strategists, and outdoor
adventurers. In the not-too-distant future, the forces of climate
change are going to transform this icy world into a new economic
frontier. The end of the Arctic, as we once knew it, will be the
beginning of a new chapter in history. That new chapter in history
must be co-authored by the people who livethere...
*Ed Struzik, author of The Big Thaw: Travels in the Melting
North*
For those who know a piece of today's Arctic story, Barry Scott
Zellen's On Thin Ice neatly connects the dots from Alaska to
Greenland with a wealth of detail. His research and his experience
living in the region come together here to buoy a generation of
scholars, scientists and policy-makers.
*Mike Peters, editor of First Alaskans Magazine*
Tribal-state relations, border conflicts, militant insurgencies,
economic exploitation/dependence, climate change, and oil politics
are the stuff of this fascinating trilogy that is not about the
Middle East. Barry Zellen has written a dense and meticulously
researched book on the trials and tribulations of the indigenous
peoples of the Arctic region as they strive for sovereignty, and
confront and adapt to modernity, globalization, and a potential
polar thaw. Zellen tells a story that has significant relevance to
many of the present dilemmas facing the international political
economic system. I suspect that it is only a matter of time before
this book serves as the important primer and source for policy
makers concerned with Arctic policy.
*Thomas Johnson, Program for Conflict and Culture Studies, Naval
Postgraduate School*
Barry Zellen is way ahead of the curve in the field of security
studies in focusing on the intersection that state rivalries and
environmental issues in the Arctic will have on global security and
stability. In On Thin Ice, Zellen highlights the important role
this part of the world will play in moderating the historic clash
between indigenous tribes and the modern state, re-defining the
conception and limits of state sovereignty in frontier regions
where tribal forces endure. All serious students of security
studies should closely examine this work and ensure that it
receives the space it deserves on their library shelves and course
curriculums.
*James Russell, Center for Contemporary Conflict, Naval
Postgraduate School*
Barry Scott Zellen has written an intriguing and challenging book
on the place of the Arctic northern peoples that must be read by
anyone interested in the new Arctic. It is not necessary to agree
with all of Zellen's arguments to understand that his book is a
comprehensive effort to understand the central role that the Inuit
must and do play in the developing issues surrounding the
transformation of the Arctic. This is a must read for anyone
wanting to understand the massive transformation that the Inuit now
face in their home.
*Robert Huebert, University of Calgary*
From the Afterword of On Thin Ice:
As Barry Zellen poignantly reminds us in this book, the Arctic is
no longer a no-man's land of interest only to missionaries,
military strategists, and outdoor adventurers. In the
not-too-distant future, the forces of climate change are going to
transform this icy world into a new economic frontier. The end of
the Arctic, as we once knew it, will be the beginning of a new
chapter in history. That new chapter in history must be co-authored
by the people who live there.
*Ed Struzik, author of The Big Thaw: Travels in the Melting
North*
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