So, what about a post-colonial Arctic?

Just as another thought, while I am in this "colonial" thing:

• Denmark's relationship to Greenland could certainly be described as "colonial", i.e. the Danish occupied it (only after some quarreling with the Norwegians, who claimed to have been there before, as Erik Raude (i.e. "the red") had settled southwest Greenland, and later Norway actively maintained human trapping outposts on North-East Greenland), and they both abused, relocated, exploited and "civilized" the native Inuit in best colonial style. Nowadays, Greenland has its "hjemmestyre" (home rule) with its own parliament, which even sends a few representatives to Denmark's parliament, but they seem to be quite content with their role of being a dependent part of the Danish kingdom. Realistically, they would not want to have to live without the substantial subsidies from the Danish gouvenment.

• Canada has a similar "mixed performance" track record with its Northwest Territories, but decided recently to allow the formation of a new Inuit-ruled territory, Nunavut.

• Norway has - as always - the smallest presence but the biggest ambitions of all the Polar players ;-) and while its sovereignty over Svalbard, that archipelago halfway between Scandinavia's North Cape and the North Pole is not resulting from formal colonial occupation, but stems from a history of coal mining "company towns", it is certainly going through something similar to a "post-colonial phase", as it transformed itself from being a (now state-owned and administrated) company town to a democratic society over the last few years. This transformation has many symptoms which again remind of post-colonial nations, like lack of proper administration and management personnel, a sudden reduction of financial resources and a somewhat inflated self-image.

• Russia - or rather the former Soviet Union - is maybe the area where (at least Polar) post-colonial fragmentation seems to be at the earliest stages only, although there are also attempts among the decimated, relocated and culturally diluted nations living in its Arctic territories to reorganize themselves and get a better representation of their cause.