ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the complexities of Arctic politics in general and the patterns of shared interest and dividing lines in Arctic affairs in particular. Canada's official Arctic policy rests on four pillars: exercise sovereignty, promote social and economic development, protect the environmental heritage, and improve and devolve northern governance. The United States has loomed large in what has come to be described as a sort of sovereignty anxiety in Canadian Arctic policy. Canadian Arctic policy documents also stress relations with other Arctic states, but do not mention the European Union or Asian states as potential partners. US Arctic policy is on the one hand about the economic and social development of Alaska, and on the other hand about security in a larger international setting. Denmark published a draft Arctic policy together with the Greenlandic home-rule government in May 2008 and was instrumental in preparing and organizing the Ilulissat meeting a few weeks later.
