The book, edited by C. Carothers, et al, includes 19 peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the symposium Fishing People of the North in September of 2011 in Anchorage Alaska. The goal of the symposium was to share knowledge of the opportunities and constraints that fishing people in northern countries encounter in a time of environmental, social and economic change. It was the first Wakefield Symposium to focus on the work of social scientists.
The paper by Gallucci, Fabbi and Hellmann focuses on the geopolitics of the Arctic Ocean. Geopolitics will determine the extent that the Arctic Ocean’s alleged bounty of natural resources is utilized and in turn the fate of the peoples of the North and their environment. This paper reviews the role of the Arctic Council and some of its limitations. The role of the all-important United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is described in the context of both non-arctic and Arctic Council nation states in the Arctic Ocean donut hole (the territory surrounding the geometric center of the Arctic Ocean) and exterior to the extended jurisdictions of the five arctic littoral states. Finally, opportunities the Arctic offers are considered for the nation state of China, as representative of North Pacific countries.
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