The Arctic World in Fridtjof Nansen's International Thought

Abstract

With a global oceano-political turn amid intensifying Arctic rivalries, it is prime time to reappraise polar perspectives on international politics. Taking an intellectual-historical approach, this essay explores the thought-world of the Arctic-explorer-turned High Commissioner for Refugees, Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). By a contextual and connective interpretation of Nansen's writings, this essay argues that the Norwegian polymath and Fram captain's Arctic oceanography informed a circumpolar worldview as an interconnected oceanic space. Moreover, Nansen mixed environmental determinism with cultural relativism into an ethical and epistemic framework, through which he defended Inuit norms against democratic domination by the forstanderskaber (local council). Finally, extending his advocacy for Greenland to other peoples and polities, especially the migrants and minorities from the Mediterranean to the Black Seas, Nansen argued against coercive state practices in favour of international movement and resettlement. In this series of argumentative moves, Nansen drew from ecology to legitimate international projects amid public humanitarian crises. Nansen's maritime international thought cautions us on the promise and peril of not only the past, but also the present rush to the unfreezing Arctic, as the once forsaken prophecy of the ‘Open Polar Sea’ gains fresh water, enabling future navigation and naval competition. Amid global displacements, by climate and by war, we have much to learn from Nansen's approach to epistemic justice and collective actions.