Читать книгу The Arctic and World Order - Группа авторов - Страница 22

The Arctic has many international institutions and organizations. The Arctic Council is a state-run forum promoting inter-governmental cooperation among members. It also includes Arctic Indigenous peoples (represented through their specific organizations) as permanent particpants as well as non-Arctic observer states and others.¹ The Northern Forum is a consortium of sub-national governments sharing ideas and activities related to the Arctic.² The Arctic Circle is a non-governmental forum for businesses and others to discuss Arctic affairs and make connections throughout the region and beyond.³ The International Arctic Science Committee brings research organizations and scientists together.⁴ Various treaties and arrangements foster bi- and multi-lateral cooperation on Indigenous rights, commercial shipping, polar bear conservation, fisheries management, marine mammal hunting, oil spill response, search and rescue, trans-border travel, scientific research, and many other aspects related to the interactions of humans with one another and with the environment.⁵

Significantly, international cooperation has long been a hallmark of the Arctic. A British expedition brought Norway’s Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen back from Russia’s Franz Josef Land after their epic journey across the sea ice towards the North Pole and back.⁶ A Russian icebreaker came to Barrow, Alaska, in October 1988 to help clear an escape path for gray whales stranded in a shrinking opening in the ice. The dispute over Hans Island between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland features each country staking its claim by leaving a bottle of liquor for the other to find. Russia and the United States clash over Crimea, Syria, and other matters around the world, but nonetheless in 2018 presented a joint proposal that was adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to establish shipping lanes in the Bering Strait.⁷ The few remaining boundary disputes are relatively minor, unlikely to cause major conflict and, perhaps as a result, likely to persist at least until they actually matter.⁸

In this chapter, I examine the prospects of Arctic conservation in light of the state of Arctic cooperation and institutions today, the lack of a consistent and compelling vision for the Arctic, the choices that are before us, and possible pathways for the next two decades.