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The Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Resources & Security

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June 13-15, 2011
Residence Inn by Marriott Kingston Water's Edge
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Open to the General Public
Registration Fee: $300

For most of their history, the states of northern Eurasia and North America have directed their foreign policies anywhere but northward. In the early twenty-first century, however, the emergent forces of globalization and climate change have turned a vast, inhospitable region from a neglected back yard to an international arena where the evident benefits of cooperation must compete in the minds of governments with traditional tendencies toward rivalry and the consequent risk of intensified conflict. Rapid physical changes in the region have opened up the prospects of new shipping routes, access to mineral resources and fisheries, opportunities for scientific research, and the accompanying risks to a fragile environment, to aboriginal ways of life, and to national and international security.

Most of the states ringing the Arctic have, in recent years, begun to develop strategic visions to frame or accompany the mix of social, cultural, environmental and economic policies through which they have sought to manage their sectors of the region, including their territorial waters. Abundant evidence of well-established cooperation among them has, in recent years, come to be overshadowed by rhetoric of rivalry and conflict, usually focused on territorial claims. Accompanying these competing national interests are varying understandings of security in the region, from narrowly military to comprehensive, and from national to multilateral. For the armed forces of Canada and the United States, therefore, the Arctic poses a set of questions transcending those that challenged them during the Cold War. This conference will move from the broad historical and geo-political perspective of the opening panel, through two panels tightly focused on specific issues, back to a broader concluding panel exploring the future prospects of the Arctic. The four panels are titled: Conflict and Cooperation: The Geo-politics of the Arctic; Sovereignty: Borders and Security; The Rush for Resources: Costs and Benefits; and Stepping into the Future.

Partners: Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen's University, US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, Canadian Army Land Force Doctrine and Training System and Queen's University Defence Management Studies

Links and Contacts

• Host's Website
• Click to Register

Please note that all colloquia require RSVP.