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Who's in Charge? Indigenous Global Politics and Canada's Arctic Foreign Policy

with Leah Sarson, Post Doctoral Fellow, Dartmouth College

Leah's research explores the contested relationship between state and Indigenous substate governments, with a specific focus on the global mining industry. Using a database of the international connections of Indigenous communities in Canada, these community profiles reveal how Indigenous governments strategically engage with the resource extraction sector to realize their political objectives. They demonstrate how Indigenous governments can challenge the state’s ability to realize its international preferences, despite the state’s overwhelming relative power. In the Arctic, where climate change, new technologies, and increased global demand are encouraging mining companies to explore resource deposits previously considered inaccessible or undesirable, overlapping levels of government are already jockeying for control on the global stage. This research bridges the literature on paradiplomacy, multilevel governance, and Indigenous politics, highlighting the transformative effects of Indigenous global politics. By refuting assumptions about the hierarchical relationship between substate actors and the state, Leah shows how the international activities of Indigenous governments produce a feedback loop that both strengthens claims to autonomy while impugning state authority and yielding further opportunities for international engagement.