Climate change, with the possibility of an ice free Arctic ocean by 2015, has generated a renewed interest in the Arctic. This interest is being driven by the possibility of easier access to the abundant supply of resources such as oil, gas, minerals, and fisheries. Interest in Arctic tourism is also growing. Retreating sea ice will provide opportunities to avail of shorter routes for maritime traffic to and from Asia, North America, and Asia via the Arctic Ocean and Northwest Passage. In addition, the rate of population growth of local inhabitants in the Canadian Arctic is the fastest in Canada and one of the fastest in the world. A growing population will increase the demand for sealift resupply to Canada's northern communities. This work presents the first attempt to examine the role of privatization of icebreaking services in light of the present and projected shortages of infrastructure to support development in the Arctic. A unique combination of multiple methods within marine transportation, comprising of Delphi, grounded theory, and quantitative survey, is applied to investigate the potential for private involvement in the delivery of icebreaking services in the Canadian Arctic. This includes a novel application of Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory approach to develop hypotheses and relationships grounded in expert opinion. Although the Arctic Ocean may be ice free during the summers, there is still the issue of winter freezing and the threat of lingering multi-year ice which will impede marine transportation especially during periods of darkness and fog. The research shows that the future growth and development of the Canadian Arctic will undoubtedly require the use of designated icebreakers and ice strengthened vessels. However, Canada's fleet of Arctic icebreakers is ageing and considered unsuitable for future demands. While Canada has earmarked CAD $750M for the construction of one new icebreaker scheduled for delivery in 2017, the research shows that Icebreakers can be built outside of Canada for considerably less money and in less time. Also, the management and operation of the Canadian Coast Guard is under considerable security by the Auditor General of Canada. The research shows that not unlike others Arctic nations, there is potential for the creation of private-public partnerships in the delivery of Canadian Coast Guard services, principally icebreaking, in the Arctic.

The aim of this thesis is to understand the decision-making processes concerning ice-breaking along the coast of Norrland, with the specific aim to analyse the activities of regional interest groups in the Norrland region and government agents at different administrative levels at the key stages of the decision-making processes: initiation, drafting and decision-making. The thesis also explores how institutional factors at different administrative levels affected the agents that were involved at those stages of the decision-making processes. As navigation along the northern Swedish coast must negotiate winter conditions which causes ports to freeze over, the government ice-breaking service functions as an instrument to compensate the export firms in Norrland for these constrains. Year-round navigation in the north Swedish coastal waters was achieved through a series of decision-making processes that took place during the period from 1940 to 1975. These decision-making processes are important to study since ice-breaking was an integrated component of the expanding heavy basic industries in Norrland and thereby for the rapidly growing exports during the 1950s and 1960s. This period is the decisive point in the economic history of the Norrland region regarding how the natural resources should be exploited and how exports should be advanced. This study concludes that the decision-making processes were initiated by government agents at different administrative levels. Official investigatory commissions were set up at several occasions to deal with issues related to the government ice-breaker service by the ministries responsible for ice-breaker policy. It is also demonstrated that the decision-making processes concerning ice-breaker investments were initiated by the government boards that were responsible for the operation of the ice-breaker service. In this respect, the study concludes that the government activities during the initiation stages should not be confused as a sign of regional interest group passivity on these issues. The activities of the interest groups during the initiation stages were primarily intended to draw attention to the problems caused by winter to regional shipping, in order to put the issue on the political agenda. As the decision-making processes proceeded into the drafting stages, the participation from regional interest groups was much more significant as the government offered interest groups forums and procedures for structural consulting through various organisational arrangements. The regional interest groups that participated in those arrangements were industrial firms in the heavy basic industries sector. In those cases other regional interest groups participated, they would promote the interests of those firms. As a result, the final drafts from committees and government bodies included arguments that favoured an expansion of ice-breaking to promote the growth of the heavy basic industries in the Norrland region. The analysis of the decision-making stages suggests that a combination of institutional factors at different administrative levels contributed to the outcome of the decision-making processes. One result is that the general aims of macro policy such as trade policy, growth policy and regional development policy were favourable towards an expansion of the government ice-breaker service, which would benefit the export industries in the Norrland region. Another result is that the sectoral organization within the government maritime bodies contributed significantly to the outcome of the decision-making processes. Large-scale planning and operational experimentation was allowed to take place within the ice-breaker service, which convinced the government that ice-breaking and winter navigation was a feasible transport alternative.

This thesis overviews my experience during graduate school making tangible,object oriented sculpture. I have been working formally to compose space in a way that develops a narrative between parts. The work is also a bridge between the fields of painting and sculpture, in terms of drawing with form and both painted and local, material color. My palette has mostly consisted of bronze casting, steel fabrication, fiberglass and epoxy resin, paint, the found object, woodworking, and mold making. This work is also conceptually based in showing the hand worked qualities of the materials, the transfer of meaning through casting, and my emotional relationship with the various parts of the sculptures. The three major themes of the work are: divine love and the complex of the apocalypse, the complexities and psychology concerning the relationship between a man and a woman, and the intrigue, potential energy, and beauty of the systems mankind hasinvented to harness the atom. The major artistic influences for this body of work have been: Jasper Johns, Marcel Duchamp, Constantine Brancusi, Alberto Giacommetti, Reg Butler, Henry Moore, Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth Armitage, Jeff Koons, Terry Winters, William DeKooning, Richard Diebenkorn, David Smith and Charles Long. I retain a strongrelationship with the movements of Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, and Assemblage, and amalso currently involved in solidifying the Manifesto of Raubeaux with a small group ofesteemed colleagues.