Аннотация:This opening chapter explores how the admittance of Asian states as observers to the Arctic Council in May 2013 acted as a lightning-rod for analysis and commentary. Some commentators even spoke and wrote about 'Asia eyes the Arctic'. The authors address the contested imaginaries and practices, and the more technical literatures on Arctic governance including work that has followed closely the evolution of the Arctic Council. The current and future intention of Asian stakeholders, and the spectral presence of what some have called 'Polar Orientalism', deserves consideration. Areas of cooperation between the eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States) and Asian states such as China and Korea in fields such as science, shipping and business should not be underestimated. What the admission of new Asian observers made manifest, however, is five questions: Who exercises control in the Arctic? How are problems and issues dealt with in the Arctic and beyond? What demands are being placed on the Arctic? Where is the Arctic felt? And can the Arctic Council anticipate future problems and challenges? Russia's intervention and annexation in Crimea/eastern Ukraine and worries about 'spill-over' effects contaminating the spirit and purpose of Arctic cooperation merely added further fuel to ongoing debates about a 'global Arctic'. The last part of the introduction introduces the essays that make up this collection including an afterword.
