This article is part of the Arctic in Context series of expert assessments of the Arctic Council at its 20th anniversary. By James Gamble In July 1984 a piece of legislation that would have lasting implications for Arctic science and policy passed the United States Congress and was signed into law by President Ronald Regan.

Tony Penikett, then premier of Yukon, listens to the prime minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, during a Constitutional conference in 1987 in Toronto. “People of the North” is a series of interviews created in partnership with Arctic in Context and Kesserwan Arteau, a legal and consulting firm that works with indigenous communities. Every six weeks, Kesserwan Arteau

Icelandic Love Corporation “Evolution” 2010, Photographs and plywood, Collection of the artists By Kristine Jordan  In an age when the effects of climate change are visible like never before, have efforts to sustain the environment come too late? Can balance still be restored to the delicate ecosystems altered by industry? Is humanity living on borrowed

This article is part of the Arctic in Context series of expert assessments of the Arctic Council at its 20th anniversary. By Timo Koivurova and Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek At its 20th anniversary, the Arctic Council received both a lot of praise and some critical reflection on its evolution since its establishment in September 1996. Among

This article is part of the Arctic in Context series of expert assessments of the Arctic Council at its 20th anniversary.  By Annika E. Nilsson Anniversaries tend to inspire kudos for past achievements, and the Arctic Council’s 20-year anniversary is no exception. We often hear about how it has created conditions for agreements on search

Since the 16th century, natural resources—both renewable and non-renewable—motivated European explorers and traders to navigate the Arctic in search of commercial expansion and a northern route to the “Orient.” From the fur trade in the pre-industrial era to the demand for minerals, oil, and gas as the world industrialized to increased emphasis on renewables and

World Policy On Air is a podcast from the pages and website of World Policy Journal. As the effects of climate change pose new challenges in the Arctic, melting ice and warmer temperatures also present economic opportunities. On the latest episode of World Policy On Air, Inuuteq Holm Olsen, the first Greenland representative at the Danish embassy

This article is part of the Arctic in Context series of expert assessments of the Arctic Council at its 20th anniversary.  By David N. Biette As the United States prepared to take the rotating chairmanship of the Arctic Council for the second time, observers noted the 2015-2017 term would straddle two administrations. President Barack Obama’s

Last December, the team at Studio Olafur Eliasson brought nearly 90 U.S. tons’ worth of glacial ice from coastal Greenland to Paris. While politicians, bureaucrats, civil society representatives, and more debated global responses to climate change at COP21, the U.N.’s annual climate change conference, the 12 blocks of ice, arranged in a clock formation, melted

When the Arctic Council came into being with the signing of the Ottawa Declaration on Sept. 19, 1996, its survival was far from a foregone conclusion. Now, after 20 years in operation, the time has come for reflection. Founded as a consensus-based forum for cooperation, coordination, and interaction between Arctic states and, significantly, with the