Call for Contributions on Arctic Geopolitics
Études Inuit Studies special issue on Arctic geopolitics
Guest Editors: Karen Everett, Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk & Pauline Pic
Call for abstracts deadline: June 30th 2026, 150-250 words
Full submission deadline: December 14th 2026, 8500 words (including references)
For the past three decades, the Arctic has often been framed as a “zone of peace,” characterized by cooperation among Arctic states on issues related to climate change and sustainability. During this time, Arctic Indigenous Peoples asserted their rights and emerged as influential actors within Arctic and international governance structures, while the broader rules-based international order contributed to relative geopolitical stability.
However, the Arctic is currently experiencing challenging geopolitical change, including renewed attention toward Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), shifting state approaches to science, international cooperation, security and sovereignty, evolving dynamics within the Arctic Council, expanding shipping routes, and growing interest in resource extraction.
Discussions and debates in these areas, however, continue to be shaped primarily by state actors while their impacts on Indigenous communities, whose homelands and governance systems extend across state-imposed borders, are significant. Yet Indigenous perspectives remain underrepresented in global geopolitical analyses.
The special issue seeks to critically examine geopolitics from a diverse range of perspectives, with a special focus on Inuit and Indigenous approaches
Multidisciplinary submissions (in French or English) are welcome that engage with a broad range of topics, which may include, but are not limited to:
· Theoretical developments, for example the role of non-state actors, critical geopolitics
· Self-determination in a changing geopolitical context
· Indigenous-state relations
· Indigenous policies and strategies
· Arctic governance systems
· Geopolitical impacts on Indigenous communities
· Perspectives on great power competition
· Shifting alliances
· Colonization and geopolitics
· Geopolitics and security, broadly understood
Please submit abstracts of 150-250 words to pauline_pic@uqar.ca by June 30th 2026, including your name and affiliation. Submissions selected for the special issue will be communicated by July 10th 2026 with further information on submitting the articles through the Inuit Studies platform: https://revues.ulaval.ca/ojs/index.php/etudes-inuit-studies/en/index.
We welcome submissions of research papers as well as contributions in other formats, in order to reflect a broad range of perspectives. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding possible submission formats.
