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Despite its numerous valuable contributions to Arctic governance, throughout its history the Arctic Council (AC) has been subject to criticism and reform proposals from academic, non-governmental and practitioner communities alike. In order to inform this ongoing debate, the paper evaluates the proposals that have been presented for the AC thus far. The proposals are grouped into three clusters: legal reforms, organisational reforms and functional reforms. Each of them is examined in terms of its applicability and usefulness to the case of the AC, and specifically its suitability given the prevailing conditions in the Arctic. What the conducted analysis reveals is that the ideas regarding means to enhance the AC's effectiveness can be largely attributed to the assumptions their proponents make—oftentimes implicitly—about the nature of state actors and international relations more broadly, without attending to the particular conditions of the case study at hand. This is an important inference, given the unrelenting change happening in both Arctic and global socio-environmental settings that calls into question the usefulness of past modes of thinking and forms of international cooperation. Far from offering solutions, their continuous application in particular circumstances might even impede progress in addressing present and future challenges.

Ongoing political, legal, environmental and economic changes open up the Arctic. This has implications for regional security. The article tackles the question whether the preeminent regional institution, the Arctic Council, should include security-related topics in its portfolio to deal with the emerging challenges. The article argues that the regional security issues will be taken care of better in other institutions for at least two reasons: dealing with security-related topics might negatively impact the Arctic Council's institutional practice, while at the same time the Arctic Council might not provide the best institutional background needed to cope with the most pertinent issues on the security agenda.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and assess the progress of the Arctic Council in its stated goals of maintaining and broadening cooperation between circumpolar nations. This is done through an analysis both its political agreements to date and policy documents published by the nine polar nations involved in the Council as well as overall accomplishment of the stated goals of the Council in the past 21 since the Council's inception. Upon examination of these factors, it becomes clear that the Arctic Council has had middling success in its stated goals, due to a lack of overall unity in the goals and priorities of arctic nations, despite the overall cooperative sentiment expressed by each nation. Discipline: Political Science Honours Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jean-Christophe Boucher

The article emphasizes that the Arctic Council (AC) is a high level forum of cooperation, based on taking decisions by consensus that are carried out by member states on a voluntary basis and in accordance with their national interests. The AC does not meet the criteria of a classical international intergovernmental organization – IGO and may not be referred to as an international non-governmental organization – INGO due to its members. The high performance of the AC activity in the absence of a complex organizational structure, any executive body and a court is rooted in respect for national sovereignty of its member states. This informal international organization of new type became the core, around which a significant group of states, IGOs and INGOs, that received observer status at the AC, is created. Within the framework of its activity innovative tools of financing of ongoing programs have been developed. Participation of other member states of the AC in the anti-Russian sanctions does not become an obstacle for continuation of the close cooperation of all Arctic states in addressing the major problems of common concern in the Arctic. During the sanctions they established the Arctic economic council, signed the agreements on cooperation between coastal guards of all Arctic states, on scientific cooperation in the Arctic and on preventing unregulated fishing in the central part of the Arctic ocean. Negotiations on possible new agreements are going on between them. The model of informal international cooperation, demonstrated by the Arctic Council, is being successfully implemented also in the activities of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Council of Barents/Euro-arctic Region, BRICS and other international organizations. This gave the authors the reason to conclude that this type of international organizations will be further developed in contemporary international relations.

Intro -- Dedication -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- About the Editor -- Authors' Biography -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Part I: Introduction -- Chapter 1: Providing Leadership for the North -- References -- Part II: The Arctic Council and its Chair -- Chapter 2: Policy Paradoxes: Challenges Confronting the Contemporary Arctic -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.1.1 Problem Context: The Arctic Environmental System in Rapid Change -- 2.2 Problem Definition and Policy Paradoxes -- 2.2.1 How do We Define Policy Problems? -- 2.2.1.1 The Policy-making Process -- 2.2.1.2 Problem Definition in Setting Policy Agendas -- 2.3 Arctic Policy Paradoxes -- 2.3.1 The Challenges of Nation-states in Relation to Territory and Identity -- 2.3.1.1 Territory: Cooperating to Compete in UNCLOS III -- 2.3.1.2 Identity: Governments Destabilize and Secure Indigenous Identities through Education -- 2.3.2 The Challenges of the Anthropocene -- 2.3.2.1 Climate Change: The Faster the Warming, the Quicker the Development -- 2.3.2.2 Economic Development: A Richer but Poorer Arctic -- 2.4 Discussion and Concluding Thoughts -- References -- Chapter 3: The Arctic Council in Transition -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 From Rovaniemi Process to the Ottawa Declaration -- 3.3 The Arctic Council 1996-2017 -- 3.4 The Role of the Chairmanship in the Evolution of the Arctic Council -- 3.5 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 4: Chairs and International Organizations: The Case of the Arctic Council -- 4.1 How do Chairs Operate in International Organizations? -- 4.2 The Arctic Council as an "International Organization" -- 4.3 The Chairmanship of the Arctic Council -- 4.4 Leadership Challenges Facing Chairs of the Arctic Council -- References -- Part III: Recent Arctic Council Chairmanships.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Conents -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- 1 An Introduction -- 2 Placing the Arctic within Analytical and Theoretical Frameworks -- 3 Efforts at Creating an Arctic Regime -- 4 The Swedish Chairmanship -- 5 The Project Unfolds -- 6 Assessing the Accomplishments of the Swedish Chairmanship -- 7 Considering the Future -- Bibliography -- Index

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Arctic Council's activities as a forum of international cooperation in the northern polar region. The establishment of the above-mentioned regional international organization in 1996 initiated cooperation of states on topical issues in the Arctic, especially in the field of environmental protection. The Arctic Council united eight states of the northern polar region, Arctic indigenous organizations which have the status of «permanent participants» and international organizations (intergovernmental, inter-parliamentary, non-governmental) which have received the status of observer. Like any organization, it has both advantages and disadvantages. In general, during the existence of the Arctic Council, states under its auspices have been able to adopt three important regional international treaties governing relations between them, as well as a number of «soft law» acts which have political weight. Ukraine has all chances to deepen cooperation with arctic states, having received the status of observer in the Arctic Council. Key words: the Arctic; regional international organization; «soft law»; permanent participant; «Rovaniemi рrocess»; observer.