“The United States and Russia… have found ways to continue to cooperate in the Arctic—particularly, but not only—through the Arctic Council, despite the difficulties on other issues relating to other parts of the world,” said Ambassador David Balton, deputy assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries at the U.S. Department of State at a recent Wilson Center forum on the Arctic.

Despite this peaceful track record, the path forward will not be easy. “If we want to save the Arctic, we need the Arctic countries to cooperate,” said Katri Kulmuni, a member of Finland’s parliament representing Lapland. “But right now, we are in a situation where we seem to be lacking the trust to continue in an open and constructive manner… Without trust, we lack the way forward.”

The Wilson Center’s Polar Initiative partnered with the Arctic Circle to convene the first-ever Arctic Forum in the continental United States. The two-day international event, which included contributions from the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and Environmental Change and Security Program, brought together more than 600 people in Washington, DC, including high-level policymakers and senior military officers from Arctic nations, along with experts and members of the private sector, to address the opportunities and challenges faced by the people of the Arctic and Arctic Council nations.

Environmental Peacebuilding: Arctic Science as a Tool for Diplomacy

Collaboration between the United States and Russia—especially with respect to the environment—has been, and will continue to be, an essential pillar of stability in the Arctic. The two countries, along with Norway, co-chaired a task force established in 2011 that developed guidelines to help Arctic countries prevent and prepare for oil spills. “It’s not that everyone agreed on everything at the outset,” Balton said. “But there was an authentic and sincere desire to work hard to find common ground and to resolve differences.”

“We have a lot of good examples of joint projects between Russian and American universities,” said Elena Kudryashova, a professor at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Russia. “Their operation hasn’t been stopped at a time of political tensions, remaining an area of dialogue between professionals.” For example, the University of the Arctic, an international network of postsecondary institutions—including the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and Russia’s National Arctic Research and Educational Consortium—works together to promote research and higher education in the Arctic.

“The Arctic, like the Antarctic and outer space, have been regions of cooperation independent of other activities around the world,” said Paul Berkman of Tufts University. “The reason for that cooperation has been science as a tool of diplomacy.”

“Some people tend to liken researching the Arctic to researching space, and I think there’s a similarity there,” said Georgy Karlov, deputy chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. “With a good understanding of what’s going on with our climate and the global impact of the warming both in the Arctic and globally, on our entire planet, we can start making plans for the future.”

“Whatever solutions come out of the Arctic in terms of the ocean,” said Berkman, “will establish precedence for how we balance national interests and common interests on a planetary scale.”

Security in the Arctic: Cooperation at the Operational Seams

“It’s almost as if it’s really important, but no one is in charge,” said Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) about the Arctic region, adding that it falls in what “they call in the military the operational seams.”

“Where do we invest as an Arctic nation…to be a strategic player in this domain?” asked Admiral Paul Zukunft of the United States Coast Guard. “Quite frankly, we have not made those investments and the time is long overdue,” he said.

“We all share the same thing in the Arctic, all the coast guards,” said Commander Ásgrímur L. Ásgrímsson of the Icelandic Coast Guard. “We all have long coast lines…Extensive search and rescue regions. Extreme weather and sea conditions. Ice. There are few assets, a lack of infrastructure, but at the same time we have increased human activity.” The Arctic Coast Guard Forum was conceived in October 2015 to facilitate joint search and rescue operations and provide a mechanism for Arctic nation coast guards to work together to ensure safe, secure, and environmentally responsible maritime activity in the region. 

Looking forward, scientists have identified potential climate change “tipping points” in the Arctic, said Roger-Mark De Souza, the Wilson Center’s director of population, environmental security, and resilience. Despite the current track record of peaceful cooperation, the catastrophic climate change that may result could have unintended consequences for conflict in the Arctic and beyond.

When seeking alternative solutions to these and other climate-security issues in the Arctic, Admiral Zukunft said, “If we’re not engaged with the indigenous residents up in the high latitudes, we’re missing the boat.”

Investing for a Sustainable Arctic Future

“If we lose the Arctic, we lose the whole globe. Just to reiterate some of the facts: [the] impact of climate change in the Arctic is more than double elsewhere,” said Kirsti Kauppi, Finland’s ambassador to the United States. “The increasing scope and interest in economic activity in the Arctic means that there’s a growing need to ensure that this economic activity happens in a sustainable manner. And finally, the interests of the Arctic peoples have to be safeguarded in these developments.”

“It was considered a couple of years ago that there is not enough links between the Arctic Council and the business people,” said Tero Vauraste, president and CEO of the Arctic Economic Council, which was founded to facilitate conversations between politicians, businesses, and the community in the Arctic. The Arctic Economic Council represents all eight arctic states as well as indigenous people’s organizations. Today, “we are a team of team of more than 42 people, working throughout the Arctic, coming from more than 40 companies, and also inviting the whole international business community into our work,” said Vauraste.

The Arctic is an extraordinarily complex economic system, said Robert Sheldon, a private investor: “We’re an emerging economy saddled with a mature bureaucracy.” The combination of a small local population and a high level of resource extraction further adds to these hurdles. But with the increasing interests in Arctic security, politics, infrastructure, and trade, “we have a good opportunity to finally advance and normalize relationships more with transnational investment,” he said.

Barriers to trade include sanctions and the rise of protectionism in the past few years, which has made it difficult for regional and international players to enter the market. “We need the best available services and best available products to be exported and imported from one Arctic area to another,” said Vauraste, adding, “we need to see united rules and regulations as possible within the Arctic.”

“Economic development needs to take into consideration community engagement, indigenous populations, and day-to-day life of people in the arctic,” and use participatory processes that involve the local community, said De Souza.

Price Bower, the Native Alaskan chairman of the Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) in Barrow, Alaska, said, “We were taught by our ancestors and the ancestors before us that we need to take care of the environment and just take what we need and make sure that there’s some stuff left behind for future generations.” To this end, after talking with their community leaders and the Eskimo Whaling Commission, the UIC has established guidelines for oil companies to protect the sea.

The Arctic Is the Future of the Globe

Representative Don Young (R-AK), who has served as Alaska’s sole representative since 1973, noted that devoting more resources and attention to the Arctic is a hard sell. “The Arctic is the future of the globe,” he said. “My biggest challenge as a congressman is, you tell that to somebody in Nebraska, Iowa, or Nevada, and they say, ‘What?’”

Young also added that he would like to see progress in the Arctic come at a faster pace. “I’m a little tired of people not doing something,” he said. “We could have all these meetings and if we don’t do something to follow them, we haven’t done our job, and the Arctic is too important.”

Senator Sullivan compared it to the space race in the 1950s: “Everybody realizes its potential significance, but there hasn’t yet been, for the public at least, a galvanizing event like Sputnik to sort of concentrate the collective talents of the United States on a new realm such as the Arctic.”

Still, Young has high expectations for the future of the Arctic: “I’m still excited about it and I’m hoping that we can get the world excited about it.”