“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 founders, Jean François Arteau and Karina Kesserwan will publish an interview with leaders, innovators, and community members in an effort to highlight the

By Alison LeClaire Even though I am new to the role as Canada’s Senior Arctic Official (SAO), I have a history with the Arctic from within our foreign ministry, and I am delighted to be back. From 1993-95, I worked as a desk officer on the International Arctic and Forest issues file. That work related

By Erica Dingman The fourth annual Arctic Circle Assembly, held from Oct. 7 to 9 in Reykjavik, Iceland, was a striking display of Arctic networks. The comingling of social networks representing a wide range of interests—from the commercial sector, academia, NGOs, and indigenous peoples to federal and subnational governments—later prompted discussion of commercial networks. From

World Policy On Air is a podcast from the pages and website of World Policy Journal. For more than 100 years, Canada’s Indian Residential Schools separated indigenous children from their families in an effort to eradicate their culture and language. On this week’s episode of World Policy On Air, documentary photographer Daniella Zalcman explores the

By Wilfrid Greaves The United States is an Arctic nation, but the Arctic has usually been an afterthought in the making of government decisions. U.S. security policy has traditionally viewed the region as a line of defense rather than a place to be secured in its own right. However, under President Barack Obama, the Arctic

By Robert Stevens The U.K.’s role in the Arctic region is increasingly under threat. Since decolonization throughout the 20th century, British exceptionalism has been all but ground down. The Canadian Arctic, one of the most sizable and populous regions of the Arctic, was a significant part of the U.K.’s colonial past. Yet in recent years,

Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, is becoming increasingly active in expanding its global partnerships and developing its domestic economy. Erica Dingman, director of World Policy Institute’s Arctic in Context initiative, discussed the island’s long-term goals for its export and tourism industries and addressed the effects of climate change with Inuuteq Holm Olsen, Greenland’s first

By Bob Paquin Canada’s North put me under a spell. Glimpses of ice sheets, rock, and water from an altitude of 30,000 feet on transatlantic flights have always been captivating. I’ve wondered about the people and the places of the North, musing over Northern lifestyles and the undeniable link that the people have to their vast,

“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 founders, Jean François Arteau and Karina Kesserwan will publish an interview with leaders, innovators, and community members in an effort to highlight the

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