To mark the Arctic Council’s 30th anniversary, we conducted a series of interviews with the people who helped build the Arctic Council, shape its work and carry it through some of its most challenging moments.
In this interview, we sat down with Jennifer Spence of the University of Ottawa and Harvard’s Arctic Initiative and former Executive Secretary of the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group.
Jennifer Spence speaks about how the Arctic Council is uniquely set up to navigate geopolitical challenges, shares her thoughts on the changing discourse around Arctic exceptionalism and gives her input on how the Council could evolve in the future.
Jennifer Spence: From my time both in the Arctic Council and working outside of it, what's clear to me is that the Working Groups are the so-called engine of the Arctic Council. It's where people connect the most on really clear and substantive issues. There’s also the possibility to evolve and be flexible to the issues of the day. You see issues emerge from above and you can receive things from below, but ultimately, the Working Groups are that place where the top and bottom meet and really can drive an agenda.
Jennifer Spence: The idea that work can still progress despite tensions or differences in priorities by Arctic States, non Arctic States, and the growing interest from different parties in the Arctic, really does reflect the strength of the Arctic Council to convene those that are interested in a particular project.
Because of the consensus based approach, and because of the ability for individual States and Permanent Participants to come together and engage in a project without it necessarily having to include all of the States or Permanent Participants, it offers a huge amount of flexibility for those that have common interests to come together and mobilize around them.
That flexibility in this context is even more important. The topic of wildfires is a fabulous example of that. As the need grew and more of the States recognized wildfire as an important issue, more people could join in on the Arctic Council’s wildland fire work.
Jennifer Spence: I think Arctic exceptionalism has become this fascinating debate right now. It either is or it isn't. But to say that Arctic exceptionalism is dead is to miss some of the really amazing parts of the Arctic. When we talk about it, we're often referring to the geopolitical situation. We're talking about the consensus and the cooperation between States. But what has been quite powerful about the Arctic Council is that the cooperation with Indigenous Peoples and the fact that this innovation has come to be a signature element of it, is also exceptional. The environment of the Arctic is also exceptional. When we take a narrow lens to what Arctic exceptionalism means is to miss some of the really important features that make the Arctic exceptional.
I also think one of the risks of the idea of exceptionalism is that if the narrative doesn't align with reality of where we are right now, then it doesn't serve the same purpose anymore. We need to reflect on how we communicate with the outside world about the Arctic. And if the narrative of exceptionalism isn't serving a useful purpose for informing policy anymore, then we need to consider what that looks like. The question is, what are some productive narratives right now?
We're seeing a lot of narratives around conflict and competition and the race for resources. None of those to me are productive. So how do we replace them? What might it look like to promote the idea of “globally connected, locally led”. That gives us a powerful narrative to define what the policy issues should be and also how we should function.
Jennifer Spence: I think we need to celebrate that the Arctic Council is evolving. I feel like there's been this tension because there’s somehow this need to justify that the Arctic Council has survived. I think we've moved beyond the ‘is the Arctic Council dead’ scenario. It’s only a very poorly informed person who isn't aware that the Arctic Council is doing work.
But I do think there's still more work to be done to acknowledge that it isn't just keeping the lights on. There's really good, important work being done. And I hope that these types of communications initiatives by the Arctic Council Secretariat and Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat will give people a better understanding of what's happening within the Arctic Council.
What I would really like to see is the Arctic Council play a leadership role in two different areas. One of my great concerns right now is that in the current geopolitical environment, we're seeing less of a conversation about climate change, environment and biodiversity – these kinds of issues that the Arctic Council has been incredibly strong on. And I think that the Arctic Council remains a critical forum for bringing these priority issues forward, within the Arctic States, non-Arctic States, and other actors that can play an important role.
Even more important than that is what has made the Arctic Council unique – the role that Permanent Participants have played in bringing and maintaining local issues to the table, making them credible and legitimate issues. There's no other place for that on the international stage. So, if the Arctic Council can prioritize Indigenous Peoples’ participation, their leadership and that focus on the local issues that bring communities together across the circumpolar Arctic, then it will have done a really important job.
Jennifer Spence: My time with the Arctic Council will always be something that was – is – really important to me. It’s been a forum for building relationships. And relationships are critical to how the Arctic Council works. And it’s still my community. It’s still my network. These are still the people that I work with. And at the end of the day, the Arctic Council is a critical platform where so many communities of the Arctic convene and connect. I feel like I'm still part of the Arctic Council family, but I have a different position in it. And to me, that has been critical.
Jennifer Spence: This is hard. There's a lot of good memories from the Arctic Council. When I worked for the Sustainable Development Working Group, one of the things that was always extremely special was the opportunity to actually get to meet with people from communities. So you actually had a sense of a place and a people, and those opportunities to meet people from across the circumpolar region are really the things that make the work feel real when you're working at a high level internationally. It's what makes it seem like you're actually doing something that has an impact. Often when you're in a standard Arctic Council meeting, it's actually the moments in between the meetings that I think are the most special. I recognize this is not something that is easy to do right now. But I think finding those opportunities, even bilaterally, to spend time in Arctic communities is so important.