The European Union's Arctic Policy Process from a Critical Geopolitical Perspective

Over the last decade the Arctic has been increasingly highlighted as an emerging space of and for geopolitics with both "insiders" and "outsiders" determining regional development. In that regard the term "Arctic geopolitics" has become something of a buz zword with respect to the Arctic region, its related political, economic, environmental and social development and the various actors involved. My PhD project aims to scrutinize the Arctic's interests of one particular regional "outsider", the European Un ion (EU). In that regard my dissertation focuses on the EU's Arctic policy-making using the particular theoretical concept of critical geopolitics. Critical geopolitics complements the notion of Arctic geopolitics by scrutinizing the effects of geography on international relations and its explanation of the specific narration and construction of Arctic space and its geo-politics. Geopolitics is not seen as the neutral consideration of pre-given geographical facts but rather as a deeply ideological and pol iticized form of analysis. Such an approach helps me to not only explain Arctic geopolitics as such but essentially the EUropean framing of Arctic space, the consequent building of a related policy tool-kit and related repercussions on the EU as a geo-pol itical subject in-the-making. However, regional actorness by the EU cannot be comprehended without including relevant regional actors into the discussion. Consequently the analysis of the relationship between the EU and Norway is key to my project. Norway due to its central role for and in the region is the most powerful European Arctic state, yet not a EU Member State. Therefore the Norwegian perception of and interest in an increasing EU-Arctic engagement is particularly relevant for my PhD thesis. By u sing the Arctic as a case study, my PhD thesis aims to answer two major questions: 1) What does the Arctic mean for the EU? 2) What sort of (geopolitical) power is the EU?