Coordination of International Organizations of the North-Arctic Regions: to the Program of the Presidency of the Russian Federation in the Arctic Council

Abstract

Mechanisms for coordinating the activities of international interstate and macro-regional organizations of the North-Arctic regions, the implementation of which may be directly related to the program of the Russian Federation’s Presidency of the International Arctic Council in 2021-2023, are proposed. Among these organizations, primarily the Arctic Council is an international forum, which operates on the basis of interstate government agreements of the highest level between the Arctic countries. But in recent years, the Arctic territories’ activities at the macro-regional and regional levels, their regional and local govern-ments have increased. How are the efforts of these top-level intergovernmental and regional communities and societies coordinated? For example, how is the interaction of the Arctic Council with the established sufficiently effective Barents / Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) or the Northern Forum regulated and the newly created Bering / Pacific-Arctic Council (BPAC)? Do we need clear and well-coordinated mechanisms for this interaction and who should do it? The analysis concludes that a special task force is needed within the Arctic Council structure to develop mechanisms for coordinating its activities with similar macro-regional structures to make the process a coherent and focused one to address the priorities of the Arctic basin in the coming decades. The duration of this task force will depend on the outcome of the task at hand. This proposal is very timely, as it is possible to implement it during the presidency of the Russian Federation in the Arctic Council in 2021–2023.