The transformative biophysical and socioeconomic changes now occurring in the Arctic are generating new needs for governance in the circumpolar north. One common response to this challenge, the negotiation of a comprehensive Arctic treaty, is neither feasible nor necessary as a means of meeting these needs. This presentation turns instead to the idea of a regime complex, a concept that has become increasingly influential in the broader literature on international cooperation, and explores the prospects for the development of an Arctic regime complex. It argues that a number of the elements of such a complex are already in place and that others are coming into focus at this time. There is no basis for complacency here. But current developments do provide a basis for cautious optimism regarding efforts to meet the needs for governance in a changing Arctic.
Speaker: Professor Oran R. Young, Bren School, University of California (Santa Barbara)
Oran Young is a renowned Arctic expert and a world leader in the fields of international governance and environmental institutions. Professor Young served for six years as vice-president of the International Arctic Science Committee and was the founding chair of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change within the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. He currently chairs the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and the Steering Committee of the Arctic Governance Project. Among the more than 20 books he has authored are The Institutional Dimensions of Environmental Change and Governance in World Affairs. His forthcoming book is Institutional Dynamics: Emergent Patterns in International Environmental Governance.
Chair: Mika Aaltola, Programme Director, the Global Security Research Programme, FIIA
