Arctic Initiative Co-Director John Holdren and Senior Fellow Fran Ulmer call for increased U.S.-Canadian cooperation on geopolitical challenges around relations with Russia and China as well as the critical problems being imposed by climate change on the North American Arctic.

This paper explores the unique conditions that made the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean possible and examines how success was achieved by the interrelationships of science, policy, legal structures, politics, stakeholder collaboration, and diplomacy.

In every region on Earth, climate change is threatening societies and ecosystems with a variety of extreme conditions, while resources to address these threats remain scarce. These conditions demand a greater reliance on international cooperation, science diplomacy, and a collaborative approach to regional priorities. A region such as the “Third Pole” would do well to examine how the Arctic Council structure for international cooperation has helped the Arctic as a whole address pressing issues, and how something similar might allow other regions to improve their understanding of environmental changes, prepare for likely social impacts, and build resilience for the future.

The Office of U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today released the November episode of the Senator’s “Inside Maine” podcast, in which he and his guests discuss the opportunities and challenges of a warming Arctic. King, Co-Chair of the Senate Arctic Caucus, was joined by Fran Ulmer, Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow and former Alaska Lieutenant Governor, and President of the Maine International Trade Center, Wade Merritt. Together, the Senator and his guests laid out the local and global implications of the shifting region, including the changing environment, better shipping routes and trade opportunities, and expanded competition with Russia and China.

From February to March 2022, Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Fran Ulmer and Research Fellow Nadezhda Filimonova, alongside leaders of international Arctic research organizations and Arctic Indigenous peoples’ organizations, contributed to a three-part webinar series on international scientific cooperation in the Arctic. Insights from the webinar series were distilled into a Science Diplomacy Action report entitled "Enhancing International Scientific Cooperation: Arctic Science and Technology Advice with Ministries," which was published by the Science Diplomacy Center.

The rapid pace of Arctic thaw demands collaboration with Russia, no matter the political implications. In a seminar hosted by the Arctic Initiative on May 11, 2022, Andrey Todorov and Andreas Østhagen tackled the thorny question of how to proceed with Arctic Ocean governance in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and expressed tentative hope for a pragmatic approach to cooperating with Russia on pressing issues such as shipping and fishery management.

In late March, 19 students from Harvard and the greater Boston area boarded a bus to Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, for the final session of the second annual Arctic Data Stories Workshop. 

The Arctic Initiative team and partners participated in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) both in Glasgow and online this year. 

The Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted Iceland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, for an engaging Earth Day dialogue on sustainability.  

As the Arctic continues to transform due to a changing climate, Minister Thórdarson discussed the critical role the Arctic Council will continue to play in promoting collaboration on the issues of sustainable development and environmental protection across the Arctic and beyond. The collaboration is also essential to global security. 

In 2019, the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute co-hosted a workshop with the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council at Harvard Kennedy School entitled, Policy and Action on Plastic in the Arctic Ocean. This early-convening played a key role in fostering a policy discussion around tackling the problem of plastics in the Arctic Ocean. 

Now in 2021 the first global conference focused on plastic pollution in the Arctic Ocean, the International Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and the Sub-Arctic Region,  will be hosted virtually in early March. Findings from the 2019 event will be featured as a keynote in the Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and as part of the final panel on March 9, which is focused on the topic of “Ways Forward”.