ABSTRACT. This study focuses on the resonance strategies of Sámi reindeer herders in four reindeer-herding cooperatives in northernmost Finland in climatically extreme years, specifically those occurring during the period 1970 -2007. "Resonance" is an instinctive and indwelling reaction of a herder to a specific change (in contrast to coping, which is a more general response). The study is based on interviews with herders, field experiences, reindeer population statistics, and weather data. Before the 1960s, herders were able to deal with changing weather conditions by using intensive herding techniques and semi-tame reindeer. After the 1960s, reindeer became wilder because of the use of snowmobiles and more extensive herding techniques. The herders of the fell and forest cooperatives did not have sufficient means to prevent the serious reindeer losses in 1972 -74, which resulted from two years of hard snow and ice cover, hot summers, and the free ranging of loose herds. In each of the four cooperatives studied, most of the old siida herds were combined, and one solution to handling large, loose herds was to build fences between cooperatives. Since the 1990s, all four cooperatives have used diverse herding and pasture rotation strategies to cope with the critical winter months. The herding techniques and the human-reindeer relationship in the fell cooperatives have differed from those in the forest cooperatives mainly because of differences in pasture types, topography, and microclimate. The contrast can be seen particularly in snow and ice conditions, as open fell regions have a thin and compact snow cover, whereas forest regions typically have deep, soft snow. This research shows that the resonance strategies of Sámi reindeer herders are both heterogeneous and dynamic: herders change them constantly, drawing on both old and new techniques to deal with the variable weather.

The article discusses the results of a three year research project studying international indigenous political activism using case studies from the Arctic. Drawing on two different disciplinary starting points, international relations and international law, the project addressed two interrelated questions. The first of these was how relations between states, international organisations and indigenous peoples have been and are currently constructed as legal and political practices; the second was how indigenous peoples construct their political agency through different strategies to further their political interests. These questions are addressed from the point of view of power relations. The power to act is the basic form of political agency. However, this power may take different forms of political action, for example, self-identification, participation, influence, and representation. The main conclusions of the article are: 1) indigenous political agency is based on multiple forms of power; 2) practices of power that enable and constrain indigenous political agency change over time; 3) power circulates and produces multiple sites of encounters for states, international organisations and indigenous people; 4) indigenous political agency is a question of acting; and 5) there are new challenges ahead for indigenous peoples in claiming a political voice, in particular in global climate politics.

In this article, I discuss trust and its manifestations in international environmental cooperation. A lack of trust in the capacity of states and other actors to tackle environmental issues leads to international environmental insecurity. Awareness of such incapacities is widespread and is increasing in `modern risk societies'. Trust is often understood as the rational and intentional efforts of parties to treat one another as trustworthy counterparts and to ignore discretion, but it is also habitual. Trust is based on the socialization of agents into certain practices. The importance of trust and its different dimensions emerged as the central theme in a study of international environmental cooperation in northwestern Russia. Russian and Nordic participants were interviewed in the winter 2003—2004 and spring 2006 with the aim of gathering their views and experiences on cooperation. The interviewees were mainly representatives of regional and national administrations and non-governmental organizations. In addition, in the autumn of 2004 and again in the autumn of 2006, a questionnaire was sent to project managers working in northwestern Russia. The article highlights the importance of the institutional dimension of trust in terms of trust in abstract expertise and monetary systems as well as trust in the representatives of such systems. Both trust and the lack of trust remain important issues, especially in regard to the Russian capacity to develop domestic environmental policies and to improve the status of Russia in international environmental cooperation.

The article discusses the way global environmental problems have been included in the concept of environmental security. The concept has been developed as an alternative to the traditional concept of security, which emphasizes the security of the state and the military means of securing it. The discussion on the concept of environmental security has concentrated on the unit of analysis: it has been suggested that an environmental component be included in the concept of national security, global security or societal security. However, the problem in the concept of environmental security is that the referent object of security, the environment, has not been given enough attention. The relationships between the man, the environment and globalization of environmental problems require more thorough study in order to develop the concept.

Indigenous peoples have emerged as active participants in international relations. They claim the right to participation and to consultation in international political decision-making and to represent their interests based on principles of self-determination. Indigenous peoples' organizations in the Arctic have been in the forefront of the political mobilization of indigenous peoples in different international forums. The aim of the INDIPO project is to study the dynamics of interactions between states, international organizations, and indigenous peoples. This research project draws on theories and practices in international politics and international law in order to analyse how 'indigenousness' is used politically as a claim to selfdetermination and sovereignty in the international system and what the political consequences of this claim will be. The research objective consists in seeking answers to two interrelated questions. Firstly, how relations between states, international organizations and indigenous peoples have been and are currently constructed as legal and political practices? Secondly, how indigenous peoples, through different strategies, construct political agencies to further their political interest? The research project advances knowledge about the construction of the political agency of indigenous peoples and their participation in international policy-making. The researchers seek to establish a constructive dialogue with the representatives of major stakeholders and to organise two workshops with them in order to discuss the objectives and results of the project. The first one was held in Inari, Finland in January 2006.The INDIPO project organized also a panel at the annual convention of the International Studies Associ-ation in March 2005 at which several relevant papers were presented. Some of these papers will be published in Polar Record and the first appears below. The project has threeyear funding from the Academy of Finland (2005)(2006)(2007).

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