International Law as A Strategic Resource for Nordic Small States: Do Arctic Governance Frameworks Compensate for Limited Power?

The report focuses on the extent to which the Arctic systems of governance have enabled the Nordic small states, that is, Iceland, Finland, and Norway, to balance their merger material power by strategically exploiting the international law. The analysis has been done on the basis of the Small State Theory and is supplemented by Institutional Liberalism and legal institutionalism based on a qualitative comparative case study. The results demonstrate that the international law and the institutional frames connected with it are indeed considered as a relevant strategic resource that enables these states to augment their influence by means of legal expertise, agenda-setting, and norm entrepreneurship. It is concluded in the report that although Arctic governance offers a singularly predisposed surrounding to the impact of the small states, law is a facilitative mechanism instead of an equalizing one, with its effectiveness determined by the matter area and the political geography.