Game Under The Power Of The Arctic Governance And China's Rights And Interests

We have entered the era of the arctic from the beginning of the21st century. Inrecent years, especially since the first decade of the new century with the melting ofthe arctic sea ice caused by climate warming, the arctic plays an increasinglyprominent role in the strategy of international politics. The arctic area, once only ofinterest to scientific study, now are being pushed to the geopolitical front. With itsabundant resources, important international strategy and business passage, importantmilitary value, scientific research value and its unique influence on global climatechange, the arctic is increasingly becoming the focus of attention of manygovernments and their academic circles. Currently powers are fighting for their rightsin the arctic, which makes the issue of the arctic governance the focus of internationalpolitics and a sensitive problem.The Arctic Ocean is the main body of the arctic, the ocean problem in the areamainly involves two important aspects: first, the nature and scope of jurisdictionunder the arctic coast states, including the issue of sovereignty and jurisdiction of thearctic passage. The second aspect is about the ownership of the sea area and its marineresources which are outside the scope of jurisdiction of the arctic coast states. The twoimportant aspects of the question belong to the core of the system of ocean policy.The arctic ocean problems include not only the "physical relationship," such as thedevelopment of oil and gas resources, the development and management of arcticpassage, the exploitation of biological resources and environmental protection; butalso include political relationship, such as each coastal state and international politicalactor attempts to influence the related arctic policies of others’. The specialgeographical factors delimit a clear boundary for the arctic.The essence of the arctic issue is the problem of relevant international politicalactors in the arctic regions fighting for their rights and the arctic governance, namelyhow to solve the problems through an appropriate legal system arrangement,including the problem of contending of rights and interests in the arctic,environmental problems caused by global warming, the problem of passageregulation and governance caused by the development of the arctic passage and theproblem of comprehensive regional governance. From the moral level speaking, thearctic issue concerns human common interests, it can be said a problem of common responsibility for the whole human being.The Paper firstly introduces the general situation of the arctic and its evolution inglobal geopolitical strategy and combs the history, content and the current situation ofcontest for rights from the perspective of international law. Then the paper analyzesarctic states’ fighting for the rights on the delimitation of land and sea borders, marineresources development and utilization etc, which constitute the background of thearctic governance and theoretically demand the need of governance to solve the aboveproblems. From both theoretical and practical aspects the main part of the paperdiscusses the issue of governance in the arctic and demonstrates the theory throughthe case of arctic shipping governance and the case of arctic climate environmentgovernance. In the process of discussing the arctic shipping governance, AnalyticHierarchy Process is adopted. While in the course of studying the arctic climateenvironment governance the international system theory perspective is used toanalyze the formation and function of the arctic climate change framework. Based oncomparative studies of all major international political actors’ arctic strategy, thethesis puts forward China’s overseas interests in the area and strategically analyzesChina’s participation in the arctic governance. The thesis finally comes up with somestrategic advice for China’s participation in the arctic affairsThe first chapter of the paper briefly introduced the general situation of the arcticregions, including the arctic geography and resources, climate environment, nativeresidents as well as development of resources, the chapter also briefly combed the roleof the arctic region in the global geopolitical evolution.The second chapter analyzes the history, the content and the situation of fightingfor rights by the arctic countries from the perspective of international law. Thischapter studies the disputes among arctic states through Spitsbergen Treaty andUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which play an important role in thearctic regions. At the same time the chapter points out the limitation of the function ofinternational law.The third chapter discusses the regional governance in the arctic in theory andpractice and gives the definition of the arctic governance, pointing out the subject,contents, approaches, frame structure and regional governance practice of the arcticgovernance. The fourth and the fifth chapter separately demonstrates the governancein arctic shipping areas and in climate environment field through the two case study of arctic shipping governance and the arctic climate environment governance.The sixth chapter combs the arctic strategies of the major international politicalactors and makes a comparative study to them. Their arctic strategies and practice inthe arctic affairs provide a beneficial reference for China’s participation in the regionalaffairs, which constitutes an important factor for China’s formulating the arcticstrategy. Chapter7discusses China’s overseas interests in the arctic regions, probesthe approach for China to achieve the interests. The paper finally puts forward somepolicy suggestions for China’s participation in the arctic governance to realize thenational rights and interests.