In 1988, after years of failed negotiations over the status of the Northwest Passage, Brian Mulroney gave Ronald Reagan a globe, pointed to the Arctic, and said “Ron that’s ours. We own it lock, stock, and icebergs.” A simple statement, it summed up a hundred years of official policy. Since the nineteenth century, Canadian governments have claimed ownership of the land and the icy passageways that make up the Arctic Archipelago. Unfortunately for Ottawa, many countries – including the United States – still do not recognize these as internal Canadian waters.

Crucial to understanding the complex nature of Canadian Arctic sovereignty is an understanding of its history. Lock, Stock, and Icebergs draws on recently declassified Canadian and American archival material to chart the origins and development of Canadian Arctic maritime policy. Uncovering decades of internal policy debates, secret negotiations with the United States, and long-classified joint-defence projects, Adam Lajeunesse traces the circuitous history of Canada’s Arctic maritime sovereignty.

Adam Lajeunesse is the Irving Shipbuilding Chair in Arctic Marine Security Policy at St. Francis Xavier University. He is a Research Associate at the Centre for Military, Strategic, and Security Studies and the Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary, and a fellow with the Centre on Foreign Policy and Federalism at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Lajeunesse is a regular lecturer at the NATO Defence College (Rome) and the Canadian Forces College (Toronto), as well as a frequent speaker on northern security issues for academic, government, and military audiences. He is the author of Lock, Stock and Icebergs (UBC Press) - a history of Canada’s Arctic maritime sovereignty.

Adam Lajeunesse's profile page

• Winner, John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize, Dafoe Foundation

Lock, Stock and Icebergs sets a new standard for Canadian Arctic policy studies. Not everyone in this country will agree with or be pleased by what the author has to say. But every one of us who is interested in the Arctic stands to gain by coming to terms with his take on a theme that’s in danger of becoming stale. And if somehow a good number of us were to become critically aware of the information, perspectives, and insights that are on offer here, the quality of Canadian public debate about the Arctic would improve, perhaps greatly. All along, the rigour and ease displayed by Adam Lajeunesse in delving into the governmental side of Canadian Arctic policy-making are a challenge to those who would do the same.

Arctic

Lajeunesse’s study should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the history of Canada’s Arctic policy and the basis of its Arctic maritime sovereignty. This book should also prove useful to policy-makers. As Lajeunesse has shown, holes remain in the sovereignty tapestry that covers Canada’s Arctic waters. Questions will continue to arise. In providing a window into the past developments that have shaped Canadian legal thinking and Arctic policy, Lajeunesse has done a great service for those engaging in future discussions, deliberations, and debates about these issues.

International Journal

…this book [is] an indispensable and major contribution to the literature and discussions on Canadian Arctic maritime sovereignty claims, most importantly the contested Northwest Passage … Lajeunesse not only provides a solid explanation of the subject’s historiographical debates, he offers a new perspective that enriches the debate.

The International Journal of Maritime History