Domesticating the Arctic: A Discourse Analysis of Canada's Arctic Foreign Policy

Abstract

This thesis investigates how the concept the Arctic is utilized in a Canadian Arctic foreign policy context today. The thesis main argument is that the Canadian government discursively represents the Arctic as a domestic space by drawing on cultural references, historical analogies, geopolitical identity and representation of danger and external threats. This argument is based on a qualitative study of key Arctic policy documents produced by the Harper government since 2009. The study is founded on discourse analysis as theory and method, and investigates the interconnected relationship between national identity and foreign policy. The thesis finds that Canada s national identity and Arctic foreign policy simultaneously constitute each other.