Arctic Governance

Current international mitigation efforts are failing to solve the increasingly alarming issue of global warming. With a history of an inability to enforce International law, world leaders must figure out a new method to work together to combat climate change. There is no longer a true global leader in combating climate change, so is the possible solution dominating the arctic through geopolitical influence, or a country such as Greenland with an indigenous population becoming independent and taking control of a large chunk of the arctic? There are ethics, economic consequences, political factors, and environmental risks at play that will determine this. After evaluating those in the context of geoengineering in the arctic, a solution will be proposed about the best path possible for the Arctic moving forward with geoengineering to protect the environment.

Modern ethnic processes in different groups of Enets occur, depending on the specific ethno-demographic situation. In the northern (tundra) group of weak processes of cross-breeding with Caucasians, but actively mixing with the Nenets. The southern group is dominated by Russian, and in the northern Nenets. In the northern group, Mixed Enets-Nenets Nenets population gradually fixed identity. certain "ethnic balance" observed in the south. Natural population growth more noticeable in the southern group, as there are more Caucasoid Métis, who are more likely than the Nenets, Enets people define themselves as Enets. For example, we are seeing the results of Enets passive adaptation of the ethnic group. Enets, long time to adapt to changes in the cultural and natural environment, have come under the influence of numerous and more capable of adapting Nenets ethnos. As a result, Enets lost many members of their own ethnic culture. In the future, we can predict the complete dissolution of the tundra Enets groups among neighboring peoples and the preservation of a formal identity among Enets Forest Enets group.

PREFACE Per Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, which provides constitutional protection of indigenous and treaty rights, the Government of Canada has a fiduciary duty to the indigenous people of Canada. This duty is compounded by contractual settlement agreement obligations and international laws. Sadly, Inuit Elders who have chronic health needs are removed and relocated to distant non-Inuit communities and institutions for long-term palliative and hospice care. There is an obvious systemic problem where governments with limited funding, in harsh and complex environs, are unable to provide the requisite health care, housing, and other social services and infrastructure Inuit communities and people direly need. Reminiscent of subjugation and oppression, these socioeconomic failings show that vestiges of colonialism still exist. This essay does not intend to appropriate the voice of Inuit people. It seeks to incorporate the views of Inuit people from their documents and external sources to describe the tragic irony that the system of Inuit Elder long-term residential care represents. It is only they who can truly judge, in the wake of Residential Schools and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, how well they have progressed or achieved their goals of self-determination and self-governance.

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) for the Russian Federation is a strategically important maritime communication with the status of a historically established national transport artery. Despite its applicability to the Arctic, and therefore to the waters of the NSR, the norms and provisions of the modern international maritime law, and, first of all, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS), Russia declares the important role of the national legislation on the regulation of navigation on the NSR. Such a situation is conditioned by the existing historical practice, the tacit consent of most states, as well as the special environmental vulnerability of the Arctic region and the desire to prevent the marine environment pollution due to the navigation. Among the main opponents of this approach is the USA, which traditionally disputes the unified permitting regime for navigation along the NSR as an example of Russia's extremely broad interpretation of the norms and provisions of UNCLOS. The first part of the paper will show how those legal approaches used by Russia to introduce the national level of the NSR regulation, i.e., the concept of internal historical waters and the method of straight base-lines, do not contradict UNCLOS, as they go beyond its limits and are based mostly on customary norms of international law (the so-called international custom) rather than treaties. The U.S. disagreement with such an assertion is discredited by the fact that Washington is not a full party to UNCLOS, and thus cannot fully enjoy all the prerogatives it has introduced.

This chapter considers opportunities for Arctic states to manage and conserve biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction in the High Arctic and reviews the positions of China and the EU in relation to such potential frameworks.

As the Arctic Ocean coastal states have adopted in 2014 significant steps towards the management of High Arctic marine living resources, the role of third states with regards to these development needs to be considered. Indeed, the international legal regime applicable to the High Seas provides very limited prerogatives for coastal states to restrain the rights of third states for the sake of marine conservation.

The chapter first introduces the global legal regime applicable to biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction as well as relevant ongoing processes meant to further define this regulatory framework. The initiatives undertaken by the Arctic states to protect the Arctic marine environment are then reviewed. The chapter concludes by considering the positions on this issue of two major non-Arctic actors having expressed strong interest in the region: China and the European Union.

This study highlights that China and EU are likely to have different positions on the conservation of marine biodiversity in the High Arctic. The Arctic states will thus need to accommodate the diverging perspectives of non-Arctic states if they decide to establish a regional arrangement to conserve high seas living resources in the Arctic.

The attention to the Arctic is fuelled by the prospect of economic development, emerging shipping routes, and changing geopolitics. Since 1996 the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum for Arctic cooperation, has served to foster environmental protection and sustainable development in the region. The Arctic Council is composed of the eight Arctic states with territory north of the Arctic Circle and six Permanent Participants representing Arctic Indigenous People. Since its inception, the Arctic Council has admitted 13 non-Arctic Observer states. However, in 2021 three new candidates (Ireland, Czech Republic, and Estonia) were not successful with their applications despite proven records of Arctic research and influence in the region. This article will elaborate on the dynamics of Observer states admittance to the Arctic Council. Signalling theory is applied in this paper as a theoretical lens. More precisely, this paper will concentrate on fuzzy signalling, because such signals do not fall into binary classification and require a lot of contextual geopolitical information for interpretation. The data consists of research articles, publicly available statements, and media articles. The findings demonstrate that the admittance of Observer states to the Arctic Council can be viewed as fuzzy signalling. This paper will argue that fuzzy signalling is intrinsic to a multi-actor governance forum like the Arctic Council, where decisions are made on a consensus basis.

Планируемое уменьшение ледового покрова в Арктике ведет к изменению геополитического статуса этого морского региона: он становится более открытым для осуществления различных видов морехозяйственной деятельности. Приход в Арктику всех заинтересованных игроков несет с собой существенный рост рисков и угроз, прежде всего невоенного характера. Особую важ-ность приобретает проблема обеспечения экологической безопасности – защиты и сохранения морской среды и ее биоразнообразия. Противодействие этим видам угроз требует как индивиду-альных усилий стран арктической пятерки, так и принятия коллективных мер. Ключевые слова: Арктика, Арктический совет, арктические проливы, Северный морской путь, Конвенция ООН по морскому праву, морская безопасность, " мягкая " безопасность, экологическая безопасность, морской терроризм, пиратство.

В настоящее время тема освоения Арктики представляет собой систему вопросов как национального, так и международного уровня. Для Российской Федерации, обладающей уникальным ресурсным потенциалом, деятельность, осуществляемая в Арктическом регионе, имеет особое экономическое и геополитическое значение. Развитие транспортных коммуникаций является одним из приоритетных направлений государственной политики РФ в Арктике. При этом усиление роли Северного морского пути как международного транспортного коридора открывает перед РФ внушительные возможности для развития внешнеэкономических связей. В то же время особенности Арктического региона предполагают наличие некоторых рисков, для выявления которых необходимо оценить современное состояние, перспективы и проблемы для Северного морского пути.

Science diplomacy can be defined as building scientific collaborations among states to deal with common problems as well as addressing global challenges. This term also involves building constructive partnerships globally owing to the fact that both science and diplomacy is associated with open-ended negotiations based upon peaceful processes. After the end of the Cold War, there has been a remarkable interest in science diplomacy especially in the UK, United States, Japan and China more recently. On the other hand the Arctic region, which is perceived as a unique zone of peace and scientific collaboration, has been undergoing substantial transformation due to human induced climate change. Therefore, variety of emerging actors has accelerated both scientific and social cooperation across the region which determines the nexus between science diplomacy and geopolitics as well. This process has also transformed the structure of the Arctic Council and non-Arctic states are accepted as observers. Consequently, a more complicated and many-sided diplomatic system has emerged involving scientific institutions, non-governmental organizations, media and the network of regulators alongside governments. The aim of this study is to examine the role of science diplomacy in Arctic affairs. The role of emergent actors in the region is also discussed.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is considered as the universal legal regulator towards maritime spaces and resources. However, many states are directly and indirectly violating its basic Articles and political practice of. This situation gives background for the main question of this book: has the UNCLOS become a genuine «Constitution» of the Seas; would the regime, generated by it, remain unchanged in the new international conditions?

The scope of this essay is to underline and comprehend the role of soft power that is associated with the Belt and Road Initiative. It is really important to implore further into this particular topic during a time of fading American influence across the world, The promotion of Chinese soft power is to serve domestic purposes. In particular, Chinese soft power is designed to “better safeguard the people’s cultural rights, to enrich the cultural life of the Chinese society, and to raise the people’s aspiration for progress. The expansion of Chinese soft power abroad aims to serve dual purposes. Internally, it contributes to social cohesiveness which could be translated into public support for the government action. Externally, it could help de-legitimize the US hegemony.

China is trying to bring in more people from across the world in touch with Chinese understandings and preferences and by explaining their source, the hope is that people will become more accepting of them – ultimately, perhaps, they might even share and support them, but the aim at least in the short run is for them not to be found worrying and/or offensive. For western society particularly for the elites, there often has been a gathering amount of interest in understanding and perceiving the Chinese culture in their sort of way. In developing its own soft power, China wants to undermine that of the United States of America which threaten the legitimacy of an authoritarian China.

This chapter examines the following question: How did Canada’s chairmanship impact the Arctic Council and its contemporary role in regional governance? It argues that Canada helped further the Council’s turn toward addressing explicitly economic issues (in addition to environmental problems), but did so with the consensus of other member states. Canada supported several economic projects in the Council, but the majority of its projects encouraged sustainable development and environmental protection, such as championing international co-operation on the creation of an agreement to address black carbon pollution. The Harper government helped strengthen the Arctic Council and backed a policy that will help improve the position of Indigenous peoples in the institution. At least in this case, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government supported multilateralism, challenging notions that its foreign policy was isolationist in nature.

In the early 21st century the Arctic region saw the formation of the transnational networks. The agenda question is governance of the Arctic transnational networks. Taking into account the Arctic uniqueness, it should be regarded as a world experimental base to implement a new governance model – the transnational model: ‘nation-state – business – civil society’.  The goal of this model is to harmonize the interests of the world actors majority (both state and non-state) to resolve topical problems. The first part of this article is devoted to analysis of contemporary geopolitical conditions in early XXI century that propose the Arctic as a center of global interests. Then the author considers peculiarities of domestic and foreign Russian policies in the Arctic region. The third part of this article is focused on the Russian participation in formation and development of the transnational networks in the Arctic. In the conclusion the author tries to identify the priority directions of the Russian Arctic policy in the XXI century, taking into account the transnational Arctic networks.

The 21 st century is often called the "century of the Arctic". Due to melting of sea ice, the Arctic has been a source of continuous development in various fields like shipping, oil and gas explorations and so on. One such activity that has begun to be experimented is the laying of submarine cables, passing through the polar ice as an alternative route to its conventional counterpart around the Mediterranean or Cape Horn connecting Asia, North America and Europe. Against this background, the paper will look closely into the cable regime under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in the context of the Arctic region (including the exception clause under Article 234 for ice-covered areas) and relevant international and area-specific legal instruments governing the Arctic. The interplay between these instruments and the unilateral national regulations in the Arctic along with the laws governing the potential effects of cable laying and repairing on the sensitive marine ecosystems of the Arctic will be scrutinized. The study will prove useful for companies planning to develop an arctic route, for policy-makers, lawyers and students.

This paper explores the relationship between tourism and the challenges of governance in the Arctic region. Recently, both political and academic interest in the Arctic has been on the rise as a result of the increasing geopolitical importance of the region. Changes of the climatic conditions and melting of the Arctic ice caps have resulted in increased access to the “world´s last wilderness”. The increased access and interest are contributing to a growing number of tourists visiting the North. As yearly arrivals continue to rise, a number of problematic issues need to be addressed. This paper reviews the main instruments relevant to the discussion of tourism currently employed in the governance of the Arctic, and critically evaluates the insufficiencies of the current legal framework for Arctic governance and regulation of tourism in the Arctic. It concludes that although tourism in the Arctic has a number of advantages, particularly for the indigenous populations, the current legal and regulatory framework in the region lacks the scope and authority to minimize the potential (and increasing) environmental, economic, and social risks associated with increased tourism and other human activity in the region.

With the northwards expansion of offshore petroleum activity in Arctic states, there is a concern of the adequacy of emergency response systems. Petroleum activity in these areas is challenging due to harsh weather conditions, darkness, ice, large distances and lack of infrastructure. The politically controversial nature of Arctic oil and gas exploitation makes improvements in oil spill response a necessary condition to receive a license to operate for the oil industry. This paper analyzes the characteristics and development of the Norwegian oil spill response systems in the light of the northwards expansion of the petroleum industry. It addresses the Norwegian case from a pan-Arctic perspective, and looks at the different scales at which emergency response networks are organized. The preparedness theme turns out to be a meeting point for environmental and business interests and provides opportunities for innovation and economic development. Despite ongoing developments and improvements, the paper discusses the challenges ahead in Arctic oil spill preparedness. These should be addressed from a local, state and international level simultaneously, involving public institutions, private companies, and public–private constellations. While implementation takes place at the national and local level, the Arctic Council has a potentially important role in harmonizing standards and regulations across Arctic countries.

Russia is currently preparing for its second term serving as chair of the Arctic Council. The country will officially take on the roll in May of 2021 and lead the Council until 2023. Russia’s first Chairmanship was realized in 2004-2006. Following that period, significant global changes occurred, both when it came to climate issues and in relations between Russia and the West. Those, in turn, exerted influence on international cooperation in the Arctic. Though the Arctic Council does not deal with strategic issues, the existing political and strategic rivalry between two main Arctic powers, namely Russia and the United States, affects economic, environmental, and emergency cooperation in the region. In this respect, this research aims to analyze the challenges and opportunities that will be involved in Russia’s upcoming Chairmanship of the Arctic Council.

Arctic security is a main security challenge – a global one, not only a regional one – not only for the Arctic countries, but for the whole international community, first of all the European. With Russia and China expanding their role in the area, and the difficulty of finding an undisputed governance on maritime routes and economic exploitation of resources, there is the risk of militarization of the Arctic. After briefly summarizing current and future challenges in the Arctic, this paper analyzes the limits due to a deficit of suitable instruments to maintain security in the region, especially in relation to the role of international intergovernmental organizations, and suggests some remedies to overcome these deficiencies.

Fifty years ago, the American ice-breaking supertanker Manhattan tested the waters of Canada’s Northwest Passage. During its epic 1969 transit, Manhattan’s task was to determine the feasibility of shipping oil from newly-discovered fields of the North Slope of Alaska to North America’s Eastern Seaboard. In so doing, the massive vessel raised pivotal questions about safe navigation, sovereignty, and environmental protection, prompting new discussions about Arctic political and economic development.  Often told from the vantage point of the politicians and diplomats involved, the Manhattan’s story was also one of an integrated Canadian-American expedition dedicated to cooperative exploration and innovation. This volume publishes the reports of Lieutenant Commander Erling Stolee, the Royal Canadian Navy’s observer aboard Manhattan’s two Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker escorts – CCGS John A. Macdonald and Louis St. Laurent – which offer detailed, first-hand accounts of Canadian contributions to the test voyages.

Sanayi Devrimi’nin yaşanmasıyla birlikte fosil yakıtların kullanımında artış olmuş ve bu artış dünyanın ekosistemini olumsuz etkilemeye başlamıştır. Bu durum küresel ısınmaya neden olmuştur. Küresel ısınma 21. yüzyılda etkisini arttırarak devam ettirmektedir. Aynı zamanda teknoloji, bilim ve iletişim alanlarında yaşanan gelişmelerle küreselleşme ortaya çıkmıştır. Küreselleşme ve küresel ısınmayla birlikte ulaşılamayan coğrafyalara ulaşım mümkün hale gelmiştir. Bu bölgelerden biri de Arktika’dır.

              Bu çalışmanın temel amacı; Arktika Bölgesi’nin sınırlarını tanımlamak, tarihi ve yerel halkı hakkında bilgi vermek, bölgeyi Antarktika ile kıyaslamak, var olan enerji kaynaklarını belirlemek, bölgede etkili olan Arktika Konseyi’nin amaç ve faaliyetlerine açıklık getirmek, Arktik Bölgesi devletlerinin bölgedeki ulusal çıkarlarını ve politikalarını açıklamak ve bölgedeki güncel gelişmeler hakkında bilgi vermektir.

Stepien, A., T. Koivurova and P. Kankaanpää (eds.) (2014), Strategic Assessment of Development of the Arctic: Assessment Conducted for the European Union. Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.

The ‘Strategic Assessment of Development of the Arctic: Assessment Conducted for the European Union” report considers the trends and developments taking place in the European Arctic today. That includes a view to 2030, with an emphasis on the uncertainties. The analysis has been conducted on the basis of seven themes focused on change. The implications of Arctic changes for the European Union as well as the role of EU policies and actions in the Arctic are examined. The European Arctic is understood here as the part of the circumpolar Arctic located between Greenland and northwest Russia.

Yukon First Nations and the waters within their traditional territories face a variety of socio-political and environmental pressures including the effects of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, global environmental change and mining activity. These communities are in the process of implementing Self-Government and Modern land claim agreements, which contain powerful acknowledgements of Indigenous rights and authorities, including the right to unaltered “water quality, quantity and rate of flow” on Settlement lands (∼10 percent of their traditional territories). Self-governing Yukon First Nations have real, although limited, legal authorities on Settlement Lands including the ability to enact laws that supersede territorial legislation. Through research conducted in partnership with four Yukon First Nations (Carcross/Tagish, Kluane, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and White River First Nations), I examine how these Indigenous governments are engaging the authorities acknowledged in Modern Land Claim and Self-Government Agreements to assert their rights and responsibilities to water as a more-than-human relation. In particular, I analyze the potential for the creation of legislation pertaining to water on Settlement Land. I engage with critical Indigenous scholarship to examine the challenges facing these communities and to reveal emerging approaches to Indigenous water governance. More specifically, I analyze the “state-like” bureaucracies that First Nations must develop to assert their sovereignty in this context. While these forms of governance are critiqued for bearing little resemblance to traditional forms of governance, I demonstrate how First Nations exercise self-determination as they strategically navigate these opportunities in order to protect water in a manner, they deem consistent with the values, principles and relationships of Indigenous water governance.

This book seeks to pose and explore a question that sheds light on the contested but largely cooperative nature of Arctic governance in the post-Cold War period: how does power matter – and how has it mattered – in shaping cross-border cooperation and diplomacy in the Arctic? Each chapter functions as a window through which power relations in the Arctic are explored. Issues include how representing the Arctic region matters for securing preferred outcomes, how circumpolar cooperation is marked by regional hierarchies and how Arctic governance has become a global social site in its own right, replete with disciplining norms for steering diplomatic behaviour. This book draws upon Russia’s role in the Arctic Council as an extended case study and examines how Arctic cross-border governance can be understood as a site of competition over the exercise of authority.

O movimento de globalização é transversal à história das sociedades humanas, muito embora esta designação possa ser considerada recente e importada do mundo da Economia por Théodore Levitt nos anos ’70 do século XX, e popularizado a partir da Gestão Estratégica e Empresarial no decénio de 1990 por Kenichi Ohmae. Embora as suas designações tenham variado com as conjunturas ao longo de séculos, e muitos factores tenham contribuído para a forma e conteúdo que hoje apresenta, o facto é que os efeitos da Globalização sempre se fizeram sentir de forma expansiva e profunda, em grau e dimensão ajustados a cada época e ou período. E o facto é que parece ser ele o responsável pelas transformações que têm ocorrido à escala global.
Usualmente considerado nas suas formas económica e social, aqui equacionamos este movimento (que é, ele próprio, o mainstream, a referência dominante à escala planetária) numa perspectiva sobretudo política mas, também, cultural – não deixando de equacionar a relevância dos seus efeitos sobre a geopolítica e a geoestratégia.
É neste contexto que se procura reflectir sobre as possíveis articulações entre o movimento de Globalização, a importância da Cultura e a Geopolítica/Geoestratégia na Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa no seio da Nova Ordem Global Contemporânea em “construção”, com vista a contribuir para uma desmistificação da CPLP, nomeadamente no que se refere: ao seu poder efectivo (por contraposição ao potencial); às razões que, na nossa perspectiva, obstam a que cumpra a sua missão; a apresentar aquela que poderia ser uma via alternativa ao marasmo em que tem estado mergulhada quando contabilizados os objectivos e metas definidas por contrapartida aos resultados efectivamente alcançados.

Canada and Russia are the geographical giants, spanning most of the circumpolar world. Accordingly, the Arctic is a natural area of focus for the two countries. Although the end of the Cold War seemed to portend a new era of deep cooperation between these two Arctic countries, lingering wariness about geopolitical motives and a mutual lack of knowledge about the other's slice of the circumpolar world are conspiring to pit Canada and the Russian Federation as Arctic adversaries. Are Russian and Canadian Arctic policies moving in confron-tational direction? Can efforts at circumpolar cooperation survive the current crisis in Russian-Western relations, or does an era of growing global competition point inherently to heightened conflict in the Arctic?

5. Ulusal Kutup Bilimleri Çalıştayı’na “Eleştirel Jeopolitik Kapsamında Arktik’in Dönüşümü ve Devletlerin Arktik’e Yönelik Politikalarının Değişimi” konulu sunumumla ben de katıldım.
Uluslararası aktörlerin iklime bağlı değişen bir coğrafyada söz sahibi olmak için politikalarını nasıl meşrulaştırmaya çalıştıklarına şahit oluyoruz ve en önemlisi bu ilerleyen ve canlı bir süreci ifade ediyor.
Türkiye olarak kutuplarda gerek bilimsel gerek güvenlik temellerinde varlık göstermemiz, buralarla alakalı uzun dönemli politikalar oluşturmamız geleceğimiz adına oldukça önemli.

I attended the 5th National Polar Sciences Workshop with my presentation on "The Transformation of the Arctic in the Context of Critical Geopolitics and the Changing of the Policies of States towards the Arctic".
We witness how international actors try to legitimize their policies in order to have a say in a climate-dependent geography, and most importantly, this represents a progressive and lively process.
As Turkey, it is very important for our future that we have a presence in the poles on both scientific and security grounds, and that we create long-term policies related to these areas.

Chapter 3 in The Networked North: Borders and Borderlands in the Canadian Arctic Region, Heather Nicol and P. Whitney Lackenbauer, eds. Waterloo, ONT: CFPF, St. Jerome’s University)/Victoria, BC: BIG/University of Victoria, 2017. Open access publication for academic use.

Gordon W. Smith, PhD, dedicated much of his life to researching Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic. His 1952 dissertation from Columbia University on “The Historical and Legal Background of Canada’s Arctic Claims” remains a foundational work on the topic, as does his 1966 chapter “Sovereignty in the North: The Canadian Aspect of an International Problem,” in R. St. J. Macdonald’s The Arctic Frontier. This work is the first volume in a project to edit and publish Smith’s unpublished opus – a manuscript on “A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North and Related Law of the Sea Problems.” Written over three decades, this work may well be the most comprehensive study on the nature and importance of the Canadian North in existence. Volume 1: Terrestrial Sovereignty provides the most comprehensive documentation yet available on the post-Confederation history of Canadian sovereignty in the north. As Arctic sovereignty and security issues return to the forefront of public debate, this invaluable resource provides the foundation upon which we may expand our understanding of Canada’s claims from the original transfers of the northern territories in 1870 and 1880 through to the late twentieth century.

Arctic warming poses considerable legal challenges to the region. The fast disappearance of polar ice will increase economic activity, destabilize the environment, and create a host of security issues. Previous discussions have tended to focus on one of these facets in isolation. This Article aims instead to provide the reader with a comprehensive, up-to-date picture of the Arctic region’s legal needs.
The Article first addresses navigation and natural resource disputes arising from the expected increase in Arctic shipping and hydrocarbon exploitation. It then examines the pollution and conservation challenges this increase in human activity will bring. Finally, it analyzes the human security, law enforcement, and military security issues brought about by the Arctic thaw.
The Article concludes by critically evaluating the international community’s current institutional responses to Arctic warming and considering possible measures to address current response gaps, including the possibility of a holistic treaty.

The Arctic – with almost a third of the world’s remaining natural gas and thirteen percent of its oil – is one of the globe’s last frontiers for competition over unexplored natural resources. The rapid pace of Arctic melting due to climate change has created opportunities to extract the region’s previously inaccessible offshore oil and gas. The 2015 controversy over the Obama Administration’s approval of Shell Oil’s drilling in the Chukchi Sea followed by the company’s decision to pull out highlighted the need for clear and effective regulation of Arctic drilling.
Offshore oil spills are difficult to prevent and clean up, as showcased by the BP Deepwater Horizon accident – which occurred in an environment not plagued by Arctic ice and weather extremes. The complexity and fragmentation of existing governance arrangements further complicate matters. Numerous public and private entities are currently developing standards for Arctic drilling and spill response as new projects and accidents highlight the urgency of addressing risks.

This Article makes a novel proposal for addressing these challenges through what it terms “hybrid cooperation.” In this form of cooperation, diverse public and private stakeholders at multiple governmental levels coordinate their efforts through either: (1) creating institutions or (2) integrating each other’s standards in agreements and regulations. The Article uses original case studies to assess the possibilities for hybrid cooperation to make Arctic drilling safer and to create more cohesive governance. It argues that this convergence of standards and stakeholders, while piecemeal, helps to develop norms for how to operate in the Arctic. More broadly, this concept of hybrid cooperation – which draws from and contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on hybrid governance – can shed light on governance challenges in other areas, such as humanitarian crisis management, transnational investment, climate change, and whaling.

The EU Arctic Footprint and Policy Assessment report assesses the EU‘s current footprint on the Arctic environment and evaluates how it could change over time. The effectiveness of the EU‘s current environment-related policies is analysed, including how these policies relate to current and future footprint scenarios. Options for improving EU policy are presented.

The draft paper as at 24th April which is updated from the draft made for the oral presentation session (5th April 2017 does not contain any references and text errors needed corrections). The paper is still being worked on with more sections being added with some aspect areas clarified in more detail. Others are being reviewed. Due to the closure of the Parliament in the UK early for the snap elections, the text is still unfinished and will be resumed for the new Parliament session with no end date set yet. The document is best viewed by a download to Microsoft Word as web browsers tend to muddle the layout. Please note that the ice sheet mass balance changes occur mainly in nearby Iceland, Jan Mayen and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rather than Greenland itself. (High viscous, low nucleation events pushing very cool, effusive, almost 'solid' lava incursions vertically up like the Mascarene volcanism of Mauritius are rare anomalies from a misaligned hotspot influencing further afield - and therefore far less likely.)