A new book published by the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland opens the Finnish perspective to the developments in the Arctic from the 1980s to the present day.

The book “If we lose the Arctic” recounts
where Finland’s Arctic visions stem from and what Finland has pursued as an Arctic
country. The first part of the book, written in the late 1990s, is a unique
eyewitness account of the beginnings of international Arctic cooperation. The second
part brings Finland’s Arctic story to the present, to the moment when Finland is
leading the Arctic Council.

The author Markku
Heikkilä, Head of Science Communications at the Arctic Centre, is a
former journalist who has closely followed the ups and downs of international Arctic
and Northern cooperation for several decades and has written extensively on the
subject. In this work, he summarizes Finland’s long time Arctic policy vividly and
analytically.

The name of the book is borrowed from
President Sauli Niinistö’s slogan “If we lose the
Arctic, we lose the whole world”. With that, he reasoned the initiative for an
Arctic Summit during the Finnish chairmanship of the Arctic Council. It is among the
themes and development described and analysed in the book, among many others.
Finland´s Arctic policy has seen periods of high activity and low interest and it
has always struggled in finding a balance between expectations in trade and economy
and the needs of sustainable development.

The pdf version
of the book is available freely on Lauda portal of the University of Lapland.

Markku Heikkilä: If we lose the Arctic: Finland’s Arctic thinking
from the 1980s to present day. University of Lapland 2019. ISBN: 978-952-337-134-7.

Book in English: https://lauda.ulapland.fi/handle/10024/63651
Book in Finnish: https://lauda.ulapland.fi/handle/10024/63650

For more information:

Markku Heikkilä
Head of Science Communications, Arctic
Centre, University of Lapland
markku.heikkila(at)ulapland.fi
+358 40 484 4300