P. Whitney Lackenbauer - Research - Arctic Sovereignty and Security

The main area of my research programme relates to historical and contemporary Arctic sovereignty and security practices in Canada and in the circumpolar world. I have published various books, articles, and chapters on this topic, including (since 2008):

Lackenbauer, P. Whitney. From Polar Race to Polar Saga: An Integrated Strategy for Canada and the Circumpolar World. Foreign Policy for Canada' s Tomorrow No. 3. Toronto: Canadian International Council, July 2009. 93 pp. Available online at: http://www.canadianinternationalcouncil.org/ download/resourcece/archives/foreignpol/cicfpctno3.

Lackenbauer, P. Whitney, ed. Canada and Arctic Sovereignty and Security: Historical Perspectives. Calgary Papers in Military and Strategic Studies. Calgary: Centre for Military and Strategic Studies/University of Calgary Press, 2011. ii, 448 pp. E-version available online at http://cpmss.synergiesprairies.ca/cpmss/index.php/cpmss/issue/view/1.

Editor of Journal of Military and Strategic Studies vol. 11, no. 3 (Spring 2009). Special issue: Arctic Sovereignty and Security: Past, Present, and Future. www.jmss.org.

Lackenbauer, P. Whitney. " Mirror Images? Canada, Russia, and the Circumpolar World." International Journal 65/4 (Autumn 2010). 879-97.

Lackenbauer, P. Whitney. " Polar Race or Polar Saga? Canada and the Circumpolar World," in Arctic Security in an Age of Climate Change ed. James Kraska. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 218-43.

Lackenbauer, P. Whitney. "Sovereignty and Security: The Department of External Affairs, the United States, and Arctic Sovereignty, 1945-68," in In the National Interest: Canadian Foreign Policy and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1909-2009, ed. Greg Donaghy and Michael Carroll. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2011. 101-20. (With Peter Kikkert.)

In the last five years the issue of Arctic Security has developed as one of the most important questions in the international system. This research project will examine the fundamental questions: what is Arctic security? What should policy makers anticipate that the circumpolar world will look like in the future, given the various forces that are now transforming this region? What are these forces and how are they interacting? How do we measure the processes of conflict and the processes of cooperation? These questions will be posed at the international and national levels to discern what senior government officials, indigenous groups, corporate interests, scientists, academics, and Northern residents perceive to be the most important security and safety challenges in the Arctic, and to determine what unilateral, bilateral and multilateral mechanisms should be in place to address them.

" A further dimension of competition for energy resources lies in potential conflict over resources in Polar regions which will become exploitable as a consequence of global warming."
-- High Representative and the European Commission to the European Council, March 2008

The Arctic may be entering an era of international conflict and competition. Some commentators anticipate that recent and converging developments are making it increasingly difficult to maintain the hopes of the Arctic nations for peace and cooperation in the region. Four forces are fundamentally transforming the Arctic - climate change, resource development, technological development, and geopolitical development. Any one of these by itself could increase tension in the area, but their interaction holds the greatest potential for tension and conflict. Russia is using the revenue from its northern oil and gas resources to rebuild its military capability in the region. Norway is doing the same. Canada and the US have both stated that they will soon follow suit. The best intentions of the Arctic states for peaceful cooperation in the region may be negated by the combination of great resource wealth, increased access to the region, the interaction between two of the strongest military powers in the world, and the need to delimit maritime boundaries.

This project is directed at securing a better understanding of the developing trends in the circumpolar region. What are the reasons behind the new foreign, defence and security policies of the Arctic states? What are the ramifications of these actions? Correspondingly, there has been little effort by scholars to understand the changing international dynamics of the region. Outside the work by people such as Oran Young and Willy Ostreng (who focus on international cooperation) there has been a paucity of studies. There have been no systematic efforts to understand the development and implications of increased security and military efforts in the region.

This component of the project, led by Rob Huebert, will add to the public policy debate within Canada and across the circumpolar world regarding the possibilities/probabilities for conflict and cooperation in the region. Even non-polar states and bodies such as China and the European commission are devoting considerable attention to the region, which is developing into a core element of the international system. Detailed assessments of political, economic, and environmental trends will help policy-makers improve their understanding of the new forces at play and how these interact with security concerns. This project will also advance the academic debates by critically analyzing foreign and defence policies related to the circumpolar north and how these are tied to the perceived geopolitical value of the region. What is the best framework/model to incorporate the complexity of the new forces, and explain the actions that are now being taken? How do nations and non-governmental organizations view the international legal system, and how do they interpret the legal regimes and specific legal rules that exist and apply to the Arctic? Are states ultimately moving to defend their northern interests through unilateral action predominately through assertive diplomatic policies supported by increasing their power? Or will the north become an area of cooperation in which new modes of cooperation can be established through good will and trust?

The Domestic Dimension (lead: Whitney Lackenbauer)

" Sovereignty is not a magic which automatically requires or justifies a certain military set-piece. It is rather the political and territorial framework within which a state exists and functions. It is not made up of, or protected by symbols, tokens or gestures."
Legal Division, Canadian Department of External Affairs, 1970

"It is sometimes Arctic sovereignty is too important to be treated as just an adjunct to foreign relations or as a stage for foreign investment. It must be built from the inside out."
Mary Simon, "Inuit: The Bedrock of Arctic Sovereignty," Globe and Mail, 25 July 2007

Over the last four decades, and in recent government announcements, Canadian sovereignty is usually conceptualized as requiring a " military set-piece." The federal government has often turned to the Canadian Forces when faced with sovereignty " crises," from the Manhattan voyages of 1969/70, to the 1985 Polar Sea voyage, to the latest round of concerns over Hans Island and the Northwest Passage. So too has Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has announced a spate of new military measures to respond to anticipated sovereignty challenges that are not based on any conventional military threat. Accordingly, we will systematically analyze the relationship between sovereignty, security and safety in Canadian political discourse and policy.

The recent flurry of scholarship on Arctic sovereignty and security marginalizes the place of relationships and memory in Northern responses to southern sovereignty and security agendas. To address this shortcoming, the second component will critically examine the historic and contemporary practice of Arctic sovereignty and security assertion in evolving cultural, political and spatial contexts. This will involve ongoing work at the regional and local levels with Joint Task Force North and the Canadian Rangers, as well as community-based studies on security and safety issues and priorities.

Anticipating future challenges and opportunities related to security policy in the domestic context also requires an awareness of " lessons learned." Historian Whitney Lackenbauer, who for the past decade has been researching the impact of military activities in the Arctic, will lead the team critically analyzing the human impacts of " military modernization" on the Canadian North and its peoples. Our research plan is to collaborate with Northern communities to gather oral histories and current perspectives about security and defence activities, Northerners' contributions to security policies and practices, and impacts of defence activities on local environments and human health. Interviews with elders and community leaders will be conducted, wherever possible, by local high school students advised by the research team and local advisers. This will facilitate transgenerational transfer of knowledge and capacity-building within communities. Appropriate curriculum will be devised through a pilot project with the Kitikmeot Heritage Society, local high school, and hamlet in Cambridge Bay in 2009-11, and will adapted for the Inuvialuit, Kivalliq, and Nunavik regions in 2011-13.

The timing is critical. Commentators continue to call for bold, immediate action to demonstrate Canadian sovereignty in the face of threats to the delicate Arctic eco-system and to security more generally. Others warn that, historically, sovereignty and security measures have brought more harm than benefit to Northern indigenous peoples (the people most directly affected by Arctic activities) and caution that government promises are seldom implemented because the premises upon which they are based lack " staying power." Developing and enacting an integrated and sustainable Northern strategy in an era of environmental and geopolitical uncertainty is daunting to policy-makers, who are well aware that today' s decisions will have long-term effects. This research project will ensure that we are setting a future course based upon a robust understanding of the international and domestic security environments.

Gordon W. Smith, A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Problems of the Law of the Sea

Gordon W. Smith, Ph.D. (1918-2000) dedicated much of his life to researching Canada' s sovereignty in the Arctic. A historian by training, his 1952 dissertation from Columbia University on " The Historical and Legal Background of Canada' s Arctic Claims" remains a foundational work on the topic, as does his 1966 chapter " Sovereignty in the North: The Canadian Aspect of an International Problem" in R.St.J. Macdonald' s The Arctic Frontier.

This project seeks to edit and publish his manuscript, A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Law of the Sea Problems, which was written over three decades and remained incomplete at the time of his death in October 2000. Consisting of 1600 typewritten pages (and approximately 3000 handwritten pages), this document is a treasure trove of meticulous research, rich in subtle analysis and insight. Part A is concerned with terrestrial sovereignty and contains 50 chapters in eight volumes. Part B deals with the law of the sea and Canadian Arctic sovereignty and contains 15 chapters in three volumes. All of the material is thoroughly and intricately footnoted, making his manuscript an invaluable base for further research into the history of Canadian sovereignty over its Arctic inheritance. It will require significant work, however, before it can be published and made accessible to scholars and policy-makers.

In mid-2008, the Joint Law Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT) suggested that I work with Professor Armand de Mestral, C.M., holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in the Law of International Economic Integration at McGill University, to determine what parts of Dr. Smith' s work should be in the public domain from the standpoints of both national interest and scholarly relevance. Accordingly, we are working with Dr. Smith' s literary executors, and the Department of Foreign Affairs to identify which sections (drawn from classified material) of this monumental study must remain closed. (To complete these efforts, I have been given level II security clearance.) Once this task is complete, we will publish selections from the remainder so that they are available to scholars of Canadian and Northern history in the near future. As Arctic sovereignty and security issues return to the forefront of public debate, this invaluable resource will serve as a comprehensive foundation upon which to expand our understanding of how Canada' s claims have evolved since the original transfers of the northern territories in 1870 and 1880 through to the late twentieth century.

In the year that followed Dr. Smith' s death, his executors undertook to preserve the original manuscript of A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Law of the Sea Problems in as proximate a manner as Dr. Smith would have ordered himself. It has been compiled in accordance with his original outline, other than the latter parts of those chapters that were still in progress and where the ordering has not been entirely self-evident. The entire manuscript has now been typed exactly as it was written, albeit in a format that requires extensive editorial work to make it publishable. It also requires significant redaction and reduction before any publisher will consider it. This is the task of the editors (myself and Professor de Mestral) over the next two years.

My primary responsibility will be for Part A on territorial sovereignty. Volume 1 of Part A is concerned with the early history of Canadian sovereignty in the north. It begins with the transfers of the northern territories to Canada in 1870 and 1880, their early organization and administration, their division into provisional districts by the Order in Council of 1895, and the boundary corrections that were necessary to organize and delimit these territories. The next section documents other activities by the Canadian Government during this early period, such as expeditions in the former Hudson Bay Company lands, the early expeditions of Lieutenant Gordon to Hudson Bay and Strait, and other government expeditions to northern waters such as those by Wakeham, Low, Bernier and Stefansson. The next six chapters examine causes for Canadian concern over the status of the Northern Territories, namely, the Bering Sea fur seals dispute, the Yukon gold rush, the Alaska boundary dispute, foreign whalers, and explorers in the north during the period from about 1870 through 1918. The following chapter explains the sector principle and the background of Canada' s sector claim. The next chapter considers the question concerning Danish sovereignty over Greenland and its relation to Canadian interests. The remaining two chapters in this volume look at Vilhjalmur Stefansson and his various plans for northern enterprises after World War I, with special emphasis on the reindeer and muskox projects in the north.

Volumes 2 and 3 are concerned with the period between the first and second world wars. Certain critical events are described, such as the Ellesmere Island affair (1919-1921), the Wrangel Island affair (early 1920s), and the Krueger expedition (1930). Significant government activities in the north are documented, such as those of the Eastern Arctic Patrol, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and other Canadian Government expeditions, surveys, investigations and patrols in the region. The following chapters examine the question of sovereignty over the Sverdrup Islands, the Labrador boundary dispute and the Eastern Greenland case, together with its implications for Canada. Another chapter documents the activities of American explorers in the Canadian North from 1918 to 1939 and the last chapter in this volume covers miscellaneous aspects of sovereignty problems in the north during that period.

Volumes 4 through 7 are concerned with the Second World War. They begin with a review of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence and its activities, followed by a discussion of Canadian and American fears of attack from the north during the war. The next section examines various war projects and initiatives that were undertaken in the north, such as defence of the northeastern approaches to North America and the Canadian/American involvement in the defense of Iceland and Greenland, the northeastern ferry and staging routes, the northwest staging route, and efforts to build the Alaska Highway and the Canol Project. This is followed by a chapter that examines the Special Commissioner for defence projects in Northwestern Canada and his role in the safeguarding and preservation of Canadian interests during this period. Other miscellaneous events and topics during WWII that are considered in relation to the question of sovereignty in the north include the following: the question of closing Craig Harbour and other northern posts, government and administration in the Northwest Territories and Yukon during the war, the Arctic Manual, the Northeast Planning Project, plans during WWII for a railway to Alaska, the projected Mackenzie River air route, the North Pacific planning project, and the Arctic Islands Game Preserve. Another chapter is devoted to the continued efforts that were made to obtain an authoritative written treatment of Canadian sovereignty in the north.

Volume 8 is concerned with the years after WWII. It begins with a review of the American withdrawal from the Canadian North at war' s end, looks at the basic factors accounting for the onset of the cold war and the return of the Americans to the North, and then examines early American and Canadian reaction to this new threat. The next section reviews various plans and projects for northern defense after the war, including the weather stations that were established in the north (a version of which I edited for publication in the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies last year). I anticipate that subsequent chapters on such topics as the Advisory Committee on Northern Development, the evolution of the structure and organization of Canada' s defence forces, bilateral committees concerned with post-WWII defence, and Canada' s basic defence organization and structure from 1945 to 1990, will be cut because they are less well developed.The last two chapters in this final volume, which were entitled " Warning Lines in the North, Especially the DEW Line," and " General Summary: Problems Relating to Canada' s Sovereignty over the Northern Territories since WW II," have not been located; it is unknown whether or not they were ever written. As such, I will prepare an afterword which will document sovereignty issues related to the DEW Line (based upon the research that I have compiled pursuant to my SSHRC-supported study on that topic) and provide a summary of the material covered in the volume that situates it within the existing historiography.

Part B is concerned largely with historical developments in the law of the sea, a detailed chapter breakdown of which can be provided upon request. Professor de Mestral will take the lead on identifying which sections of this part should be published. As such, the St. Jerome' s Faculty Research Grant will not be applied to this phase of the project.

The manuscript itself is thoroughly and intricately footnoted. In terms of the accuracy of his research and investigations, it is clear that Dr. Smith' s work is balanced and his conclusions are fair and just. Therefore, the value of the manuscript as a research tool is immeasurable. Dr. Smith estimated that his work probably contained the equivalent of 50 to 75 post-graduate level theses, and this seems entirely reasonable. As source material and background for further research into the history of the north, in particular regarding Canadian sovereignty over northern territories and waters, its monetary value has been estimated at over $250,000.

A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Law of the Sea Problems may be considered the most comprehensive study on the nature and importance of the Canadian North in existence and, once published, will be an invaluable resource for senior undergraduate and graduate students, academics, and policy makers. It is vital that Dr. Smith' s work be made available to scholars of Canadian and Northern history and presented as a resource for the benefit of all Canadians. The University of Calgary Press has indicated its interest in publishing the work, likely as part of its Beyond Boundaries or Northern Lights series in partnership with the Arctic Institute of North America.

This research project with Peter Kikkert, a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Western Ontario, critically re-examines the Canadian experience in the decade following the Second World War, clarifying the interplay between continental security and national sovereignty in Canadian thinking and, by extension, in bilateral relations with the United States. The onset of the Cold War heightened pressures on Canada to balance sovereignty concerns with continental security imperatives. Arctic defences were inextricably linked to American security vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, and the US pushed for access to Canada' s Far North to build airfields and weather stations. Canadian officials grew apprehensive and cautious in authorizing new installations, whereas the Americans were anxious to proceed. Journalists began to talk about a looming sovereignty crisis, and scholars cite this era as key evidence that the Americans were willing to encroach on Canadian sovereignty to achieve their ends.
This book re-evaluates Canadian policy-making from 1946-1955 through in-depth analysis of the archival record. Although Canada felt that it had to cooperate with the United States in the Arctic during this period because of Washington' s insistence on the need to securitize the region, Ottawa feared for Canadian sovereignty. More nuanced analysis indicates that Canadian and American officials engaged in quiet diplomacy through established diplomatic and military channels and ultimately set a course that would satisfy both countries' concerns. Indeed, Canada secured greater American recognition of its Arctic sovereignty than had previously existed – a consideration missed in narratives that emphasize opposing North American interests – and managed to do so through evolving but " normal" political channels.
Bringing archival evidence into dialogue with security and international relations theory, we explore Canadian perceptions and constructions of threats, and the language and policy tools that it adopted to counter or disperse them. Although our intention is not to engage in formal theory-building, applying theoretically-informed questions and frameworks to the empirical data that we have obtained on this period helps to clarify the processes and revise the "sovereignty-on-thinning-ice" narrative that is often adopted to frame bilateral relations in the early postwar period over the North American Arctic.

Arctic Sovereignty and Security

Projects:

The Emerging Arctic Security Environment: External and Internal Dimensions

Griffiths, Franklyn, Rob Huebert, and P. Whitney Lackenbauer. Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security and Stewardship. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011. xxx, 301 pp.

The Domestic Dimension (lead: Whitney Lackenbauer)