This paper asks how and by whom knowledge on permafrost thaw is produced, and how politics is implicated in this (non)knowledge production. Through interviews and fieldwork in Fairbanks, Alaska, the paper argues that knowledge production on climate change should interest International Relations (IR) much more than it does. What is at stake is IR's ability to discern which political actors and priorities affect our knowledge of climate change. An analytical shift of perspective is necessary to better grasp the politics of climate science, and this begins with an analytical focus on the knowledge production itself, including analytical attention to the role of nonknowledge. Towards this, the article draws on Ignorance Studies to identify types of nonknowledge present in permafrost science in Fairbanks. An important insight from the fieldwork and interviews, however, is that nonknowledge has a social function; it ties together civilian and military permafrost knowledge producers across institutional divides in their efforts to understand permafrost. As Arctic and global politics head towards a more competitive state—and as climatic changes accelerate—a consequence of this symbiosis could be that civilian scientists increasingly come to prioritize climate knowledge in strategically important locations, exactly because this symbiosis is based on nonknowledge.

中文翻译：

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永久冻土、科学和安全：在解冻的城市中生产气候（非）知识

本文询问了关于永久冻土融化的知识是如何产生的，由谁产生的，以及政治如何与这种（非）知识生产有关。通过在阿拉斯加费尔班克斯的采访和实地考察，该论文认为，国际关系 （IR） 对气候变化知识生产的兴趣应该比它本身更大。关键在于 IR 识别哪些政治参与者和优先事项会影响我们对气候变化的了解的能力。为了更好地理解气候科学的政治性，分析视角的转变是必要的，而这始于对知识生产本身的分析关注，包括对非知识作用的分析关注。为此，本文借鉴了无知研究（Ignorance Studies）来确定费尔班克斯永久冻土科学中存在的非知识类型。然而，从田野工作和访谈中得出的一个重要见解是，非知识具有社会功能;它将跨越机构鸿沟的民用和军用永久冻土知识生产者联系在一起，努力了解永久冻土。随着北极和全球政治走向更具竞争性的状态，以及气候变化的加速，这种共生关系的后果可能是，平民科学家越来越多地开始优先考虑具有战略重要性的地点的气候知识，正是因为这种共生关系是基于非知识的。