Beyond "Use It or Lose It": Arctic Sovereignty, Security, and Canada's Northern Strategy Under

“Whereas the politics of the Cold War dictated that the Arctic region be treated as part of a broader strategy of exclusion and confrontation,” the policy statement asserted, “now the politics of globalization and power diffusion highlight the importance of the circumpolar world as an area for inclusion and co-operation” (Dean et al., 2014, pp. [...] Stephen Harper promised that Canada would acquire the military capabilities needed to meet the sovereignty and security threats created by the opening of the Arctic and the potential challenges to Canadian sovereignty and resource rights. [...] Accordingly, Harper’s “Canada First” approach to the Arctic constituted “part of an effort to fashion a conservative nationalism, which also includes the celebration of soldiers as part of a Canadian martial tradition, rather than as peacekeepers, and the heavy promotion of the bicentennial of the War of 1812.” The Arctic offered a powerful source of “myths and narratives” conductive to nation-bui. [...] Furthermore, the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s transnational Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic (2009) emphasized that “the inextricable linkages between issues of sovereignty and sovereign rights in the Arctic and Inuit self-determination and other rights require states to accept the presence and role of Inuit as partners in the conduct of international relations in the Arct. [...] The Ilulissat Declaration (2008) by Canada and the four other Arctic coastal states reinforced the view that they would adhere to the UNCLOS framework as it applies to the Arctic Ocean, relying on the law of the sea to resolve any competing sovereignty claims peacefully.