Introduction - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 6

the global North as a 'human security provider'. The assumptions embedded
within this concept led, in Hoogensen Gjørv's view, to a type of 'virtuous
imperialism' where northern states were perceived as having the capacity to
both identify as well as rectify human security concerns in the global South,
endowing the South with the benefit of northern skills and knowledge. This
approach or understanding of human security has a one-way character that,
Hoogensen Gjørv argues, disguises both human security issues relevant in the
North, but also any shared human security concerns that transcend the con-
structed boundary between the North and South. She argues that the human
security issues in northern states are not equated to or necessarily of the same
character as some human security issues in the South (not least, large-scale
conflict and its impacts on civilians), but that being open and listening to
the priorities and security concerns of northern local actors is an imperative
part of any security debate. Hoogensen Gjørv looks specifically to what we
can learn from indigenous scholars and feminist debates in a pursuit of under-
standing human security in the Arctic.
The chapter by Oran R. Young argues that the intricate linkages between
social systems and ecosystems demand a re-thinking of the way that we
understand and guide or govern these systems if our end goal is sustainability.
Young argues that the dominant political approaches to governing the human
relationship with the environment are based upon scientific approaches that
perpetuate the assumption that the human impact on the environment, or eco-
systems, is marginal (and vice versa), and that social systems can be governed
largely independently of an understanding of, or connection to, ecosystems.
Young argues that such an approach cannot and will not lead to a sustainable
future, and that we need new models of analysis that are better at combining
the intertwined relationship between systems, acknowledging the significant
impacts that social systems have on ecosystems, as well as how those impacts
loop back and further impact social systems. Young focuses on the politi-
cal institutions that need to reflect sustainability-oriented policy making.
He recommends policy makers to draw upon diverse sources of knowledge,
develop an adequate range of possible responses to uncertainty, think more
seriously about the long-term consequences, improve monitoring, improve
learning about the social consequences of ecosystem change and use crisis as
learning opportunities.
Starting with a critical overview of security and climate change discourses,
the chapter by Chad Michael Briggs examines the vulnerability and adapt-
ability of social systems to abrupt changes in climate. Briggs argues that we
need to understand the ways in which social and political systems are able to
adjust under variable changes to the climate, occurring either rapidly or more
slowly. He claims that the understanding of adaptability is not dependent
upon a binary 'failed' or 'successful' state, but upon understanding how new
forms of stability develop in response to change, and what consequences such
stability have on the social world. Briggs focuses on the different elements of