Seminar presentation for POLS462, Queen's University, Fall term 2009.

1. THREATS TO CANADIAN SECURITY IN A
TRANSFORMING CIRCUMPOLAR WORLD
Xiren Wang, Studies in National Security, Queen’s University
November 25, 2009

2. OVERVIEW
•Actors within the circumpolar world
•Transformations of the region
•Threats to Canadian security
•Canada’s responses to threats
•Recommendations
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Xiren Wang

4. ACTORS
• 8 Arctic states
– Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, The
Russian Federation, Sweden and the United
States.
• International Institutions
– The Arctic Council (Canadian initiative)
– The Barents Euro-Arctic Council
– The Council of the Baltic States
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Xiren Wang

5. TRANSFORMATIONS
•Climate change
•Resource development
•Geopolitical change
– the realization that United Nations Convention on Law of the
Sea (UNCLOS) allows most of the Arctic nations to claim the
majority of the Arctic Ocean seabed
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Xiren Wang

9. UNCERTAINTY
• Factors reshaping the north do not proceed in a linear,
progressive manner
• Events occur at a rapidly increasing rate that defies
prediction
• The duration of these changes is unknown
• It is also unknown if or when the impact of climate
change will stop
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Xiren Wang

10. MILITARY PRESENCE
• The Canadian effort to maintain military control over its Arctic ended
almost as soon as the Cold War ended.
• 1989: The navy ceased its Northern Deployments (NORPLOYs)
• 1995: The air force reduced its northern sovereignty overflights from a
high of 22 in 1987 to 2.
• The only current land force presence in Canada’s Arctic is the Canadian
Rangers Units.
• 1999: Members of the CF seriously reconsidered their role in the Arctic.
• 2001: Post- 9/11, the entire Canadian government began to take security
issues much more seriously.
• 2002: Canada resumed military training operations in the north.
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Xiren Wang

11. THREATS
•Sovereignty & Control
•Environmental security
•Food security
•Cooperation
•Nature:
nebulous, multi-dimensional, evolving
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Xiren Wang

12. SOVEREIGNTY
• Interdependent concepts:
– Sovereignty & security
– Sovereignty & control
– Security & control
• Existence of an accepted Governance System
Competing states and competing interests undermine sovereignty
• A Defined Territory:
The littoral states are engaged in various stages of demonstrating
the limits of their continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles from
their declared baselines in accordance with Article 76, paragraph 8,
of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
• Population:
Hans Island 12
Xiren Wang

13. CONTROL
3 Zones of Controls established by UNCLOS
Zone 1: Territorial Sea
Zone 2: The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
Zone 3: The Continental Shelf
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14. ENVIRONMENT
Industrial Development - destruction and pollution of
environment
• long-range transport of contaminants
• persistent organic pollutants (pesticides, fertilizers)
•changes in atmospheric gases
•increases/decreases in global temperature
(Arctic Climate Impact Assessment)
• Domestic pollution: many settlements lack waste processing
facilities
• The environmental security and rich biological diversity of the
Canadian north needed protection.
• Transboundary & local pollutants contaminate food 14
Xiren Wang

15. FOOD SECURITY
• Defined as: the requirement of adequate amounts of safe,
nutritious, culturally acceptable food, accessible to all in a
dignified and affordable manner (Koc and MacRae, 2001)
• Requires the fulfillment of 4 needs:
– Availability
– Accessibility
– Acceptability
– Adequacy
• Food insecurity due to:
– changes in species’ ranges and availability
– access to these species
– perceived and real changes in travel safety/changing weather conditions
• Indigenous communities face major cultural & health impacts
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Xiren Wang

16. COOPERATION
«If we make the geopolitical choice of putting the Arctic in a
central position - not the only region of concern, but in a
central position - in our thinking on our foreign policy, that
will mean that we will concentrate a whole series of problems
that we are dealing with separately, such as, to begin with, the
management of our relations with all of the countries of the
circumpolar region.»
– The Seventh Report to the House of Commons, Canada and the Circumpolar World:
Meeting the Challenges of Cooperation into the Twenty-First Century
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17. ADAPTIVE RESPONSES
• Arctic Security Intergovernmental Work Group
– interdepartmental (federal - territorial) security work group
• DND review of its Arctic capabilities
• Canada’s Integrated Northern Strategy, August 2007
– strengthen Canada's sovereignty
– protect our environmental heritage
– promote economic and social development
– improve Northern governance
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Xiren Wang

18. RECOMMENDATIONS
1.Decision-making process on Arctic affairs must be improved.
• The creation of a Cabinet Committee, focused solely on the
Arctic
2.Canadian surveillance and enforcement capability must be
improved.
• acquire, build, and maintain infrastructure and equipment
3.Canada must cooperate better with its Arctic neighbours.
• esp. US and Russia
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19. CA’S AIMS
In the future, aims to:
• Enhancing the marine regime for Arctic shipping
• Options for regulatory improvement in the North
• Expanding broadband connectivity in the NWT and Nunavut
• Advancing devolution in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories
and,
• Engagement on the Northern Strategy with northerners,
stakeholders, Aboriginal groups and the Canadian public. 19
Xiren Wang

20. Thank You
Q&A