ACOSA · Breaking the Ice: INGOs as Arctic Council Observer Status Applicants

Breaking the Ice: INGOs as Arctic Council Observer Status Applicants

This project set out to explore how normative criteria are used by an international organization when considering granting INGOs some degree of inclusion into its organizational structures. My research contributed to the exploration of this question by: (1) developing a model to explain whether an NGO has a chance of becoming an observer member of the Arctic Council by factoring in both the formal and informal elements of the application process; and (2) developing a framework for audience engagement by NGOs who lack moral legitimacy and who have a stigma with the audience they seek to engage by factoring in the need for a continued process for demonstrating awareness of behaviours, attitudes and practices that led to the legitimacy deficit and stigmatization and willingness to commit through action a change from the behaviours, attitudes and practices in a manner that resonates with the target audience. Objective 1 is to trace the origins and rationale for the development of the observer status position within the Arctic Council and its links to institutional legitimacy. Objective 2 is to assess possible explanations for the different receptions to different INGO interest in involvement in the Arctic Council’s work. Objective 3 is to draw inferences between the Arctic Council’s handling of INGO inclusion and the broader discussion about INGO legitimacy and their position within international politics. The first published journal article with Polar Record (output 1) in which I developed a model exploring the formal and informal processes of NGO observer status assessment addressed all three objectives, with a focus on Objective 1. To develop this model and journal article, I used interviews from my previous Carlsberg project and this Marie Curie project with Arctic state representatives that work on Arctic Council matters to unpack how they approach observer applications. I also did research using the Arctic Council digital repository and official documents to explore what they formally state as their process of assessing observers and cross reference that with how officials describe their internal state processes and rationale for supporting or declining observer applications. Objective 2 is examined in my forthcoming book chapter (output 2) and journal article (output 3). It looks at the role of trust, moral legitimacy and stigma in helping to explain different receptions to different INGOs in the Arctic region and in politics. These publications focus on input from state representatives and Greenpeace and WWF representatives, literature on trust, legitimacy and stigma, and literature on past engagement by different NGOs in the North and the Arctic. Objective 3 is explored in the last journal article (output 3) on Greenpeace’s efforts to overcome stigma and how their example can create a template for other NGOs seeking to engage audiences with whom they lack moral legitimacy and have a negative stigma and my contracted monograph on why WWF is trusted by key audiences in the North. These two outputs draw heavily on the fieldwork interviews of firsthand experiences and reflections from WWF, Greenpeace, Indigenous peoples, and Arctic state representatives.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union