The Politics of Presence: The Longyearbyen Dilemma

• Author: Torbjørn Pedersen
• Position: Professor (Associate)
• Pages: 5-18

The Politics of Presence: The

Longyearbyen Dilemma

Torbjørn Pedersen*

Nord University, Faculty of Social Sciences

Abstract

The significant presence of Norwegian citizens in Svalbard has subdued the misperception that

Norway’s northernmost territory has an international or internationalized legal status. Now this

Norwegian presence in the archipelago is about to change. Amid tumbling coal prices, the state-

owned mining company Store Norske has shrunk to a minimum, and no current or proposed

business in Longyearbyen has the potential to compensate for the loss of Norwegian workers, in

part due to their international character and recruitment policies. This study argues that the likely

further dilution of Norwegians in Longyearbyen may ultimately fuel misperceptions about the legal

status of Svalbard and pose new foreign and security policy challenges to Norway.

Keywords: Arctic;foreign policy;international law;International Relations Theor y;

Longyearbyen;presence;sovereignty;Svalbard

Responsible Editor: Øyvind Ravna, UiT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø,

Norway.

Received: January 2017; Accepted: June 2017; Published: August 2017

1. Introduction

At 788North, the settlement of Longyearbyen marks Norway’s resolve to assert

sovereignty over Svalbard, a group of islands scattered roughly halfway between

the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. The settlement of approx. 2,000

inhabitants is a family-based society and features a 2,200-meter paved airstrip, a

deep-sea port, hotels, fine-dining restaurants, cafes, kindergartens, a school, a grocery

store, and numerous sports equipment stores.

For decades, the Norwegian government has stressed the importance of having

a substantial presence in these islands littoral to the Arctic Ocean.

1

In a policy

document issued in 2010, for instance, the government stated that ‘‘it is the

Government’s position that the assertion of Norwegian sovereignty is best served

with a permanent presence of Norwegian citizens. Maintaining a Norwegian

*Correspondence to: Torbjørn Pedersen, Nord University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Norway.

Email: torbjorn.pedersen@gmail.com

Arctic Review on Law and Politics

Vol. 8, 2017, pp. 95108

#2017 T.Pedersen. This is an Open Access article distr ibuted under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), allowing third parties to

copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any

purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.

Citation: T.Pedersen. ‘‘The Politics of Presence: The Longyearbyen Dilemma.’’ Arctic Review on Law and Politics,Vol. 8, 2017,

pp. 95108. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v8.682

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