Diplomacy and Paradiplomacy in the North Atlantic and the Arctic—A Comparative Approach

Paradiplomacy is the concept that sub-regional governments use to handle international relations. In recent decades, sub-regional jurisdictions have been given more self-rule according to the right of self-determination and various voices from different actors have become increasingly crucial in the international debate (Bartmann in Round Table: Commonwealth J Int Aff 95:541–559, 2006; Lecours in Political Issues of Paradiplomacy: Lessons from the Developed World. Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael”, 2008). The present chapter sheds light on the recent developments in the North Atlantic and the Arctic regarding paradiplomatic relations, with a focus on the sub-regional jurisdictions of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Nunavut, and Svalbard. Although these regions differ in terms of how they are regulated by national and international jurisdictions, all of these cases apart from Svalbard are also heading towards even more self-government in relation to their respective metropolitan state. Svalbard can be seen as a reverse case, where a kind of ‘reverse paradiplomacy’, or rather normal diplomacy, is at hand. I will elaborate on this subject in a separate section about this region.