Arctic Geopolitical Configuration
105a global perspective. When human presence is low but effective potential
is high, geography comes into play: it is geography which does not allow
for turning effective potential into reality. In fact, a significant number of
works claim that certain geographic disadvantages stand behind poor
results in socio-economic activity.^11
Without a comprehensive spatial differentiation of Arctic provinces,
evaluation of their conflict potential is impossible. Such spatial
differentiation might be constructed via a number of approaches. This
work is integrative. Human nature is not just a simple product of culture
and society (so-called “aggregate societal relations”) as implied by holism,
and we cannot explain all social and economic phenomena by reducing the
scope of analysis to individually-isolated conditions and actions in the
spirit of methodological individualism (atomism). If used separately,
atomistic and holistic approaches tend to reflect a one-dimensional logic.^12
We therefore apply an integrative approach to the study of social reality by
combining these approaches. On the one hand, we focus on individual
cases (“Arctic provinces”) and variables (“attributes”) when aggregating
empirical data on regional geopolitical development. On the other hand,
the study is based on a theoretical configuration of systemic (structural)
geopolitics. We assume the world to be a social construct and focus on
“...the study of the structural processes and tendencies that condition how
all states practice [domestic and] foreign policy.”^13 The systemic approach
allows for studying Arctic geopolitics in a relatively “neutral” manner.^14
Indeed, some scholars even call it the best research technique ever
imagined for comparison of such heterogeneous political systems^15 as
those of the Arctic states. Methodologically, a systemic approach permits
using both analytical and segregation techniques–i.e. perceiving the
analytical process through the prism of allocating complex social reality
(the whole) as a system of interconnected elements and then integrating
these elements back into the whole–by applying the following kind of
elementary modeling:
Whole ĺ System of elements ĺ Whole'.^16(^11) See Hsiang et al., Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict and
Hensel, “Territory: Theory and Evidence on Geography and Conflict.”
(^12) Ochrana, Metodologie vČdy: Úvod do problému, 124.
(^13) O’Tuathail, “(Dis)placing Geopolitics: Writing on the Maps of Global Politics.”
(^14) ěíchová, “Politický systém”, 169.
(^15) See Berg-Schlosser and Stammen (2000).
(^16) ɉɥɨɯɨɬɧɢɤɨɜ, Ɇɟɬɨɞ ɢ ɢɫɤɭɫɫɬɜɨ ɦɚɬɟɦɚɬɢɱɟɫɤɨɝɨ ɦɨɞɟɥɢɪɨɜɚɧɢɹ: ɤɭɪɫ
ɥɟɤɰɢɣ, 18.