Nils Ørvik

Greenland: The Politics of a New Northern Nation

Few Canadians realize that Europe begins twenty-six kilometres from Canadas eastern coast at Nares Strait in the Northwest Territories. Unlike the two small French islands, St Pierre and Miquelon, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Greenland is a huge piece of Danish real estate, which at some two million square kilometres is the largest island in the world, covering about the same area as continental Western Europe. However, close to nine-tenths of Greenland is uninhabitable. A huge ice cap, in some places I to 2 kilometres thick, covers most of the island. Only the coast, particularly in the southwest, offers conditions which even in Arctic terms are suitable for habitation and the building and the maintenance of a society. Although the coastline is about 40,ooo kilometres, Greenlands total population is only 52,347, most of whom live along the southwestern coast. Why are there so few inhabitants? There are several reasons. First, northern conditions do not encourage large populations. Canadas Northwest Territories (3,379,684 square kilometres) has a population of only 43,000. Second, people do not usually settle in a place unless they can live off the land in one way or another. And until recently living off the land, or rather the sea, in Greenland as in northern Canada, meant depending on hunting and fishing for ones living. With permafrost and

NATO the Role of the Small Members

In the midst of the deepening concern over the future of the North Atlantic alliance, the focus is almost exclusively on the larger members, the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany. This is a natural consequence of the weight that each of them carries within the alliance. Yet, is the alliance solely dependent upon the large powers? We sometimes tend to forget that nine of the fifteen members of nato are small states. Do these members have an essential role to play in the Western defence community? Do the small states still look to the alliance as a useful instrument for fulfilling their needs? And do the leading partners, in turn, still need the small members? Or would the interests of the great powers be served equally well without the participation of the smaller states in some form of a Western alliance? The small nato nations do not form a homogenous unit. In strategic, economic, and other fields, the Balkan, Benelux, and Scandinavian groups, together with Portugal and Iceland, face widely different problems. Unlike the larger members, however, none of the smaller nato countries is able to present a credible coverage of its security needs, even in the conventional sector. The contributions of the small powers to the alliance in terms of manpower and material fall far short of the proportion which the alliance provides for them. What does this imbalance between the contribution of the large and small members mean for the alliance as a whole? And what are the special problems connected with the position of the small members in the alliance?

Northern Development, Northern Security

of co-ordination, which report that federal missions are being accomplished satisfactorily; lack of public interest in and knowledge of the Arctic; lack of sufficient sense of urgency to permit effective policy planning; and so on. This book lays out pieces of a puzzle that Canada too has yet to solve. Clearly the basis exists for a more vigorous sharing of Arctic experience between Canada and the United States.

Review: Food and Fuel: Norway, Oil, and Foreign PolicyNORWAY, OIL, AND FOREIGN POLICYAuslandJohn C.Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1979, x, 140pp, US

revealing. Yet the book will fail to satisfy political scientists and economists as well as concerned citizens and students of foreign policy in countries such as Canada, which played a central role in the entire episode. Overall, when one considers the magnitude of this task the book represents a very modest beginning in an area that will assuredly receive more thorough treatment in the future.