Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sea Ice and Sociolegal Dynamics in a Changing Arctic Ocean Environment

这个博士论文研究项目将研究海冰变化的性质如何影响海洋社会法律动态，特别关注关于波弗特海和白令海的海洋边界和资源的争端。博士生将探索法律如何可能承认海冰作为一个灵活的实体，被纳入多个法律空间和系统。该项目将扩大对大北极地区人类系统、气候和环境变化以及海洋和法律的空间维度之间联系的理论理解。该项目将以一种认识到海冰不是一个静止的物体的方式推进海冰的概念化，因为它会随着风、洋流和加热的物理力量而穿越时间和空间。此外，海冰既不是陆地的也不是海洋的，就像它既不是纯固体也不是纯液体一样。项目发现将扩大对这一动态物理元素与管理复杂海洋环境的政治力量之间关系的认识。该项目将为法律如何将海冰视为一个灵活的实体提供新的见解，该实体依附于并融入多个法律空间和体系。这些洞见将对那些负责监督海冰发生地区活动的人很有价值。这些组织中包括由美国在2015年至2017年担任主席的北极理事会（Arctic Council）。项目发现将有助于解决美国担任轮值主席国期间的两个重点领域（气候和环境条件变化的影响以及北冰洋安全、保障和管理），方法是扩大对不断变化的空间海冰模式在该地区许多政治辩论中所起作用的认识。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。北冰洋海冰空间范围的变化同时允许和危及海上作业，这些变化影响了目前关于海洋边界的辩论，对国际法提出了一个有趣的挑战。在这个项目中，博士生将结合法律地理学和海洋空间研究领域的观点，评估动态和不断变化的海冰如何塑造海洋社会环境，特别是在大北极地区海洋空间的法律和政治争论方面。学生将使用三种数据收集策略：法律档案分析，以获得所有相关法律和协议的基本理解；对报告和其他官方文件进行文件分析，以了解这些地区更广泛的环境、社会、政治和经济问题；以及对政策专家、在海冰地区工作的业务专家和海冰研究人员的半结构化采访。访谈将侧重于参与者在海冰水域边界问题上的经验，他们对主权的看法，他们在海冰水域资源开采作业的经验，以及他们对已经充满活力的北极海洋环境变化的看法。

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how the changing nature of sea ice influences marine sociolegal dynamics, with special attention given to disputes regarding maritime boundaries and resources in the Beaufort and Bering Seas. The doctoral student will explore how the law could potentially recognize sea ice as a flexible entity that is incorporated into multiple legal spaces and systems. The project will broaden theoretical understandings of linkages among human systems, climate and environmental change, and spatial dimensions of the ocean and law in the greater Arctic region. The project will advance conceptualizations of sea ice in a way that recognizes that sea ice is not a stationary object, because it moves through time and space in response to the physical forces of wind, ocean currents, and heating. Furthermore, sea ice is neither terrestrial nor marine, just as it is neither purely solid nor liquid. Project findings will expand knowledge about the relationships between this dynamic physical element and the political powers that govern a complex ocean environment. The project will provide new insights regarding how the law can recognize sea ice as a flexible entity that is attached to and integrated into multiple legal spaces and systems. These insights will be of value to those charged with overseeing activities in regions where sea ice occurs. Among those organizations is the multinational Arctic Council, which the United States chairs from 2015 to 2017. Project findings will help address two of the focus areas of the U.S. chairmanship (the impacts of changing climate and environmental conditions and Arctic Ocean safety, security, and stewardship) by expanding knowledge about the role that changing spatial sea ice patterns have in the many political debates of this region. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.Changes to the spatial extent of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean simultaneously permit and endanger maritime operations, and those changes impact current debates over maritime boundaries, presenting an interesting challenge for international law. In conducting this project, the doctoral student will combine perspectives from the fields of legal geography and ocean-space studies to assess how dynamic and changing sea ice shapes the marine social-environment, particularly in terms of legal and political contestations in ocean-spaces of the greater Arctic region. The student will use three data-collection strategies: legal archival analysis to gain a base understanding of all relevant laws and agreements; document analysis of reports and other official documents to understand and contextualize the broader environmental, social, political and economic issues in each of these regions; and semi-structured interviews with policy experts, operational experts that work in sea-ice areas, and sea-ice researchers. The interviews will focus on participants' experiences with boundary issues in sea-ice waters, their perceptions of sovereignty, their experience with resource extractive operations in sea-ice waters, and their perceptions of change in an already dynamic Arctic marine environment.