The Foreign Service Journal, May 2021

40 MAY 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL different kinds of crises and changes in their environ- ment are both of huge importance in a rapidly changing climate. In 2017, at the end of the last U.S. chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the foreign min- isters established an Arctic Resilience Action Frame- work to organize regional resilience actions in such areas as, for example, man- agement of Arctic wetlands and integration of isolated power systems. During Iceland’s chairmanship, we have endeavored to keep this light shining. We hosted the second biannual Arctic Resilience Forum as a webinar series, co-organized by the Sus- tainable Development Working Group and the Arctic Initiative at the Harvard University Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, where participants discussed their resilience-related work. The ability to withstand adversity and bounce back relates as strongly to COVID-19 in the Arctic as to the effects of climate change; the importance of increased resilience for ourselves and future generations cannot be overstated. The raging pan- demic has brought the world more or less to a halt for the past year, forcing us to rethink, reevaluate and collaborate in new and innovative ways. The Arctic Council has, in fact, dem- onstrated great resilience and endurance in the face of these extraordinary circumstances with an even greater degree of close cooperation—despite not being able to meet in person, and despite coping with insufficient bandwidth and connectiv- ity in some cases. COVID-19 and the Arctic Last spring the Arctic Council prepared and published a briefing document on the pandemic’s effects in the Arctic. The main findings explained how the virus may pose an increased risk to Arctic communities because of existing vulnerabilities and challenges in the area. However, it also pointed out how some of the strong characteristics of Arctic peoples and societ- ies may help us get through the pandemic. After all, Arctic inhabitants have already had to adapt to harsh living condi- tions, isolation and a rapidly changing environment. The pandemic has highlighted the lack of infrastructure in some Arctic communities and the fragility of supply chains, where food security is already being affected by receding sea ice, especially in the Indigenous com- munities in the region. Even though these are hard-hitting truths, we must also look at the opportunities these changes bring about; like it or not, this is our future, and we must adapt to survive. Therefore, it is important for the 4 million inhabitants of the Arctic region to hold on to our flexibility and adaptability, while keeping the principles of sustainability and continued peace and security in the Arctic close to heart. Security in the Arctic The Ottawa Declaration that established the Arctic Council explicitly excludes military security from the council’s scope, and rightly so. By focusing on the three pillars of sustainable development and cooperation among the eight Arctic states and the six Indigenous permanent participants, and by steering away from troubled waters elsewhere in the world, the Arctic Council has contributed significantly to maintaining stability in the Arctic region. But the geostrategic importance of the council’s work must Even though our focus has been, and will remain, the emerging and ongoing challenges climate change presents, there are opportunities to be found, as well. Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council meeting in Reykjanesbær, Iceland, in June 2019. COURTESYOFEINARGUNNARSSON