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Presented by the Centre for International Policy Studies, the Observatoire de la politique et la sécurité de l’Arctique (OPSA), and the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN).

The Arctic Council is the primary multilateral forum regrouping Arctic states and people and cooperating on social and environmental issues. Iceland is about to pass the chairmanship to Russia for a 2-year mandate. Russia has already announced major investments and possesses ambitious objective to develop its part of the Arctic. The chairmanship is presented as an excellent opportunity to play an active role in the region.

The objective of this conference is to shed light on the strategy and intentions of Russia in relation to its upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Additionally, panelists will analyse what other Arctic states (Canada, Nordic countries, United States) and people (Indigenous groups) have to expect from the Russian chairmanship and what are the policy debates that these states are likely to face in the next two years.

Panelists:

Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek, Project Coordinator, The Arctic University of Norway

Troy Bouffard, Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Whitney Lackenbauer, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Study of the Canadian North, Trent University

Elana Wilson Rowe, Senior Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Evgeniia (Jen) Sidorova, Instructor, University of Calgary

Moderator:

Mathieu Landriault, Director, Observatoire de la politique et la sécurité de l’Arctique (OPSA) and Principal Researcher, CIPS