Awkward geopolitics? China in the Arctic and the Arctic in China

Since satellite records became available in 1979, the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world. The gradual opening of the Arctic has given rise to myriad paradoxes concerning state sovereignty/global commons, climate change/resource development, and scientific research/power projection. Among the growing number of extraterritorial states showing interests in the Arctic, China stands out as a ‘near-Arctic state’ and a rising global great power. This study draws on China’s Arctic involvement over the past two decades to make the case of ‘awkward geopolitics’, highlighting instances involving specific spaces, times, and actors that have been ‘alienated’ or ‘othered’ in global politics. It investigates awkward feelings, relations, and situations regarding China’s engagement with the Arctic, exploring how different types of awkwardness manifest at the intersection of affects, socio-moral-political norms, and great power competitions. Traversing the volumetric Arctic space, Arctic governance regimes, Arctic Council (AC) meeting venues, to China’s domestic Arctic-themed tourism sites, three types of geopolitical awkwardness are examined: identity awkwardness (the ‘near-Arctic state’), infrastructural awkwardness (the ‘Polar Silk Road’) and everyday awkwardness (China’s domestic Arctic tourism).

By employing awkwardness as both an individual affect and an analytic concept, this prism bridges multi-scale and embodied approaches in feminist geopolitics, feminist IR, and affective geopolitics, shedding light on the entanglement between geopolitical affect, international norms, and global power structures. Investigating geopolitical awkwardness concerning the difficulties, challenges, and discomforts in establishing China’s Arctic identities, maintaining Arctic presence, and consolidating the Arctic in the domestic political agenda contributes to critical Arctic studies that destabilise Western-centred and state-centred views on China’s Arctic engagement. Methodologically, acknowledging and incorporating awkward feelings and experiences during fieldwork amidst the COVID-19 pandemic enriches the affective lens in charting intersections among positionality, power relations, and friendship in the field. This study proposes a forward agenda of ‘awkward geopolitics’ that has wide application beyond this thesis.