The New Arctic Governance

Despite many predictions to the contrary, the Arctic has emerged today as a zone of cooperation. At the core of regional stability and security is an emerging architecture of cooperation focused on the Arctic Council. This new order is based not on military strength or a scramble to control resources, but on the multilateral pursuit of common interests. This book focuses on understanding and explaining the emergence of cooperation in the Arctic through an exploration by leading scholars and experts on the region of a key set of interlinked questions. What constitutes the current form of Arctic governance? What explains the emergence of this form of governance in the Arctic? Which are the emerging dynamics and actors that affect regional governance today?

At a time when many regions of the world are facing growing confrontation and even conflict, the authors consider whether the experience of fashioning multilateral, cooperative and peaceful governance in the Arctic offers lessons to other parts of the world? Looking ahead, the volume is designed to explore the sustainability of current governance trends in the Arctic. To what extent is cooperation in the Arctic the result of issues specific to the region today? Are current relationships and institutions durable in the light of emerging competition and even confrontation between key Arctic players elsewhere in the world? What steps might be taken to consolidate cooperation as the central political and security dynamic in the Arctic?

Linda Jakobson (Finland) is an independent researcher on East Asian and Arctic issues. Until 2013, she was East Asia Program Director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, having led SIPRI's research in Beijing until 2011. Before moving to Sydney in 2011, she lived and worked in China for 20 years. She has published six books on Chinese and East Asian society and has written extensively on China's foreign policy, energy security, science and technology polices and the Taiwan Strait.

Dr Neil Melvin (United Kingdom) is a Senior Researcher at SIPRI, where he specializes in the study of conflict and conflict management, with a particular regional focus on Eurasia. Prior to joining SIPRI he held senior adviser positions in the Energy Charter Secretariat and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He has worked at a variety of leading policy institutes in Europe and published widely on issues of conflict.