Arctic Regional Governance: Actors and Transformations

Abstract

This thematic issue analyzes recent and ongoing changes in Arctic regional governance in new geopolitical, security, and socio-economic contexts. It places current challenges in the Arctic within a historical context, aspiring to identify solutions, and enhances our understanding of modern processes. It presents three perspectives on Arctic regional governance: the first focuses on the challenges to Arctic environmental governance (marine living resources and Arctic seals); the second looks at the role of large nation-states, such as Russia and China, in Arctic regional governance; and the third one analyses the challenges posed to Indigenous people—in Russia, Finland, and Canada. Many overlapping themes are developed in the articles: historical lessons (e.g., from the Cold War period), challenges to the inclusiveness of environmental governance, and the role of cross-border diffusion and learning. New challenges to Arctic regional governance in the context of the war in Ukraine affect environmental governance, international scientific collaboration, and the lives of Indigenous people. Yet we know little about the depth of these recent transformations. This thematic issue aims to fill in at least some of the outlined gaps.

Arctic environmental governance: challenges of sustainable development

“…Emerging post-2022 studies on the AEG are still catching up on these radical changes and their consequences for climate change in the region and globally. Scholars point to historical experience in international scientific climate collaboration over the Cold War period (Doose et al 2023;Beuerle 2023;Viktor et al 1998;Vladimirova 2024;Obydenkova 2024;Borozna 2024). Doose, Poberezhskaya, and Beuerle, for example, state that, even during the 20th century Cold War, "amidst high political tensions and economic restrictions when climatologists had to adapt, they were still able to contribute to climate knowledge and international dialogue" (2023, p.47).…”