Arctic State Identity, Geography, History and Geopolitical Relations, Ingrid A. Medby , (2025), Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. 233 p. Hardback. ISBN 978 1 5261 5390 6

The increasing international attention for the Arctic in global geopolitics leads to a reflection on the identity of the eight states reunited in the Arctic Council by the Ottawa Declaration of 1996 and to wonder about the existence of such a thing as an "Arctic state identity."Arctic state identity, Geography, history and geopolitical relations, by Ingrid A. Medby, fills this gap with a book that is a collection of voices "from the inside" which manages to offer a new perspective on the Arctic and its geopolitics through its human side.With a complete overview of three of the eight Arctic states composing the Arctic Circle -Canada, Iceland and Norwaythe research examines the views and perceptions on statehood and national identity toward the concept of Arctic state identity given by state workers, who were asked to reflect on their working and personal experience as personnel representing their own state.The methodological approach taken in this study is based on a hermeneutical method that, after analysing echoes, stories, records, interview material and documents, leads to explore the ways by which discourses of state identity are performed and shared by the states themselves and by their representatives and personnel, demonstrating that such Arctic identity is a complex and multi-layered product of spatial, historical and relational interactions.Consequently, Medby argues that to understand and forecast Arctic geopolitics, it is necessary to pay attention to the people whose job is to represent their state daily, and to analyse their adherence to formal discourses, as well as incongruity or manifestations of power imbalances.The structure of the book follows a thematic logic.It opens with an introduction where a theoretical conceptualisation of what is meant by "state identities" is presented, with a brief review of the Arctic geopolitical literature and the definition of state identities as the product of performative discourse practices.The main issues underlined by the author invite to reflect not only on what an Arctic state identity may be, but also on how and why discourses can reinforce and shape it.Identifying "state personnel" as "those within the state institution (personnel at the federal level) who articulate discourses of their state's identity" (p.20), Medby sets then her research focus on the geographical, temporal and relational articulations that express how state representative and personnel see their countries' belonging to Arctic statehood and identities.Chapter 1 of the book, intended as a sort of introduction to the first part, presents the empirical background of the Arctic as a contested geopolitical region, offering an overview of Canada, Iceland and Norway and focusing on their shared as well as divergent geographical imaginaries of the North.The author argues that how and why we define the Arctic is something strictly dependent on the context and identifies the knowledge gap to fill as the necessity to explore Arctic state identities, starting with an understanding of how the state personnel of the three countries situate themselves, view and interact toward statehood and identity.Part 1 identifies space and time as the structures through which we can read Arctic state identities.Starting with a traditional conceptualisation of borders, maps and lines defining sovereign territories.Chapter 2 moves on including environmental characteristics and elements, experiences of nature and place-related interactions to show that people are both influencing and influenced by space and that spaceand language, as the ways we label itmatter for understanding state identities.One interesting reflection proposed by Medby refers to the etymological origin of the word "Arctic" itself, which originally came from Greek language "arktos," a common reference used in the past for the Ursa Major and afterwards adopted to indicate the Northern countries, contributing to shape the imaginary of Polar bears as recognised icons of a Northern identity which was in fact originated from the South.Chapter 3 introduces the variable of time, highlighting the relevance of ancient narratives, historic and literary tales narrating the adventures of explorers, settlers, Indigenous peoples or Viking and