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

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

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

From April 27-28, World Policy co-hosted a conference on the Arctic at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. in collaboration with the University of Washington and Trent University. The conference was the first to examine the theme of the U.S. chairmanship of the Arctic Council: “One Arctic: Shared Opportunities, Challenges and Responsibilities.” During the conference,

By Ashley Chappo Last week, the One Arctic Workshop was held at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., co-hosted by Trent University, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, and the World Policy Institute’s Arctic in Context initiative. The conference was unprecedented in that it was the first workshop

By Sébastien Duyck On April 22, leaders representing 175 governments convened in New York to sign the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Never in the history of the United Nations had an international treaty secured so many signatures on a single day. The unprecedented number of national climate commitments submitted prior to the Paris conference further

This article was originally published in Up Here Magazine. By Tim Edwards A letter from Senator Nick Sibbeston used to sit above the coffee machine at the Yellowknifer newspaper offices, congratulating publisher Jack “Sig” Sigvaldason on a lifetime achievement award and cryptically mentioning a 1980’s session of the territorial council, precursor to the legislative assembly, and

By Terry Audla  Access to affordable and nutritious food across Canada’s Inuit communities is a longstanding problem. Traditional foods, once the backbone of Inuit nutrition and cultural cohesion associated with hunting and sharing, are increasingly impacted by numerous factors not limited to climate change and  contamination of local food sources as a result of pollutants

This article was previously published in the ICC Alaska June Newsletter.  By Jim Stotts In mid-May the U.N. agency that regulates the world’s oceans adopted rules aimed at preventing pollution from ships sailing in Arctic and Antarctic waters. The London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved the so-called ‘Polar Code’ that comes into effect in January

By Heather Nicol In the spring of 2015, the United States assumed chairmanship of the Arctic Council for a two-year term. The chair was handed over by Canada, who in turn had assumed it from the Swedish chairmanship in 2013. Canada’s chairmanship had been quite different from that of its Swedish predecessor, focusing its efforts