Science, Geopolitics and Culture in the Polar Region: Norden Beyond Borders (The Nordic Experience)

Throughout the twentieth century, glaciologists and geophysicists in Norway and Sweden, as well as Danish geoscientists and ice core scientists in Greenland, made important contributions to polar field science. In the coldwar period, this research was of acute security and policy interest, not least because of the strategic planning for nuclear and missile warfare. It is in the polar regions, especially in the Arctic, where Norden has a strong presence and a geopolitical significance that punches far above its weight in terms of population, geographical size, or economic activity. This volume explores the critical issues related to the significance of an 'Arctic Norden'. It presents an image of Norden that stretches far beyond its conventional borders, covering a vast geopolitical territory in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Sea, as well as parts of Antarctica. It is a vast, transboundary territory, rich in resources, scarce in population, but with important local inhabitants and with critical geopolitical relations to major powers such as Russia, the US, Canada and, in the Antarctic, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and others. Empirically the contributors focus on science relations between Sweden and Norway in the twentieth century and their contributions to policy and diplomacy, particularly in the International Polar Years, but the perspective in the book includes a wider North Atlantic realm.