Introduction
In August of this year, the greatly hyped summit in Anchorage, Alaska between President Trump and President Putin raised eyebrows around the world and prompted protests across America’s lone Arctic state. Inviting a leader who is charged with war crimes and responsible for the illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine to the United States for a peace-making mission seemed misguided and ill-conceived on many levels. At the same time, some Arctic experts viewed the selection of Alaska for this high-level meeting as an opportunity to highlight commonalities that the U.S. and Russia share in the region. Russia pundits pointed to the significance of Putin’s inclusion of Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s envoy on foreign investment, in his delegation to Alaska and wondered whether Alaska’s natural resources might be part of a future deal.
In addition to discussions about potential deals to exploit Arctic resources, many observers wondered whether the summit would also signal a thawing of the U.S.-Russia relationship and lead to renewed cooperation in sectors beyond business and finance. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of international and bilateral projects in the Arctic have been suspended. Many of those were scientific in nature, involving Russian, American and European researchers in efforts to document the status of climate and oceanic conditions, wildlife populations, and numerous other aspects of the Arctic environment. Other programs were aimed at conserving shared ecosystems and species.
Over a period of 18 months from 2023 to 2025, the authors of this Briefing Note interviewed dozens of American and Russian scientists and conservationists whose work had been impacted by the interruption of this cooperation. Interviewees included ornithologists, fisheries scientists, marine mammal biologists, environmentalists, climate experts, and other experts. Their responses consistently highlighted cooperation as an essential element of their professional successes for two main reasons: (1) working across the U.S.-Russia boundary gave them access to information that was central to understanding their particular topic or species in question; and (2) regular contact with their international partners built a foundation of trust and led to long-term friendships on which many successful projects depended, even thrived.
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