Territorial nationalism and Arctic geopolitics: Iceland as an Arctic coastal state
This paper explores the cultural and political significance of being acknowledged and recognized as an “Arctic coastal state”. Using Iceland as a case study, we consider how coastal state status had grown in significance as the Arctic Ocean has been re-imagined more as a polar Mediterranean and less as a frozen desert. By drawing on Michael Billig’s work on banal nationalism and popular geopolitics, the manner in which the ideas and practices associated with a “coastal state” are reproduced in elite and everyday contexts. However, we conclude by noting that thus far this appeal to Iceland as “coastal state” has gained greater traction within the Icelandic Foreign Ministry and Parliament, and it remains to be seen whether it will have a more popular resonance with Icelandic citizens. Whatever the future, it is a timely reminder that terms such as “coastal state” are caught up in national and even circumpolar identity projects.
Reconsidering the concept of discourse for the field of critical geopolitics: Towards discourse as language and practice
This paper seeks to advance the theoretical discussion on the concept of discourse in the field of critical geopolitics and address the growing dissatisfaction with its value as an instrument of social inquiry. It does so in a two-fold manner: first, it aims to contribute to conceptual clarity, particularly concerning the different applications of the concept of discourse in agency theory and poststructuralist critique, and second, by extending this initial groundwork, it urges a reconceptualization of the concept of discourse, which affords a broader view of the social. Drawing primarily on Michel Foucault's methodological archaeology, I problematize the way the autonomy of the subject has been conceptualized in discourse and argue in favor of dissolving the self-identical subject into multiple subject positions. Deriving from this argument the need for a clearer distinction between narratives and discourses, I then follow the work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe to conceptualize discourse
not only as language, but also as language and practice. As I seek to demonstrate, this broader notion of discourse can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding and analysis of the discursive constitution
of geopolitical identities, while retaining the critical edge that has become the hallmark of critical geopolitics.
Beyond East–West: Marginality and National Dignity in Finnish Identity Construction
Since the end of the Cold War it has become common for Finnish academics and politicians alike to frame debates about Finnish national identity in terms of locating Finland somewhere along a continuum between East and West. Indeed, for politicians, properly locating oneself (and therefore Finland) along this continuum has often been seen as central to the winning and losing of elections. For example, the 1994 referendum on EU membership was largely interpreted precisely as an opportunity to relocate Finland further to the West. Indeed, the tendency to depict Finnish history in terms of a series of “Westernizing” moves has been notable, but has also betrayed some of the politicized elements of this view. However, this framing of Finnish national identity discourse is not only sometimes politicized but arguably is also too simplified and results in blindness towards other identity narratives that have also been important through Finnish history, and that are also evident (but rarely recognized) today as well. In this article we aim to highlight one of these that we argue has played a key role in locating Finland in the world and in formulating notions of what Finland is about, what historical role and mission it has been understood as destined to play, and what futures for the nation have been conceptualized as possible and as providing a source of subjectivity and national dignity.