Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Arctic Council has been on hiatus. This week's Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive into the history of the council as a model of international cooperation.
Dubbed Trident Juncture, the exercise is by far the biggest in Norway since the early 1980s, a sign that the alliance wants to sharpen its defenses after years of cost cuts and far-flung combat missions.
Shishmaref, Alaska, home to a tightly knit Iñpuiat community of 600 people, is ground zero for climate change in the Arctic. What happens here could foreshadow the fates of other US coastal communities. Why won't Washington pay attention?
A sculpture in Iceland marks the location of the Arctic Circle — at least the circle's location this year, because it turns out that the Arctic Circle doesn't stay in one place. It's a suggestion of how difficult it is to pin down anything in the Arctic.
When Justin Trudeau was elected as the prime minister of Canada in 2015 he did so on a platform that pledged to reform the country's environmental laws. Recent news of the Canadian government agreeing to fund a sands oil pipeline extension has many who voted for him questioning his motives.
Sámi reindeer-herding families in northern Scandinavia are being hit hard by the impacts of climate change. But some may also suffer from an effort to help address climate change — a big wind farm, being built right through their herding grounds.
The fierce debate over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is decades old. Now, the possibility is closer to reality, due to a rider on budget measures passed by the US House and Senate.
The 8- to 10-foot-thick ice that once stretched way out to sea is all but gone. Increasingly powerful storms batter its exposed coastline. A lawsuit seeking damages from fossil fuel companies was refused by the Supreme Court. Now the residents of remote Kivalina, Alaska are now wondering how long they can hold out and if anyone is willing to help them.
Former oil-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky headed to Berlin on Friday, a free man. He was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin after spending a decade in a Russian prison. But what does the future hold for Khodorkovsky?
The argument in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline says if not through the U.S., it'll go somewhere else. But a series of decisions in Canada at least raise the question over whether that is in fact true. If it's not, does that remove one reason the U.S. should approve the pipeline?
An underwater kiss from a beluga whale and a standoff between a polar bear and a pair of sandhill cranes are just a couple of the stories Mark Seth Lender shares about his travels in Hudson Bay, Canada.