See Ibid.; Vincent-Gregor Schulze, “The Shadow of the Future: The Demand for an Arctic Regime,” Geopolitics and Security, March 16, 2017, https://polarconnection.org/arctic-future-regime/; Malgorzata Smieszek, “Informal International Regimes. A Case Study of the Arctic Council,” Academic dissertation, University of Lapland, December 11, 2019, https://lauda.ulapland.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/64024/Smieszek.Malgorzata9.12..pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.4 4. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Snow, Water, Ice and Permafost in the Arctic (Oslo, 2017).
5 5. D.P. Stone, The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
6 6. See “Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, September 10, 2020, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41153.pdf; Smieszek, op. cit.; Oran R. Young, “Arctic Tipping Points: Governance in Turbulent Times,” Ambio 41 (2012), pp. 75–84; M. Carson and G. Peterson, eds., for the Arctic Council, Arctic Resilience Report (Stockholm: Stockholm Environment Institute and Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2016); M. Sommerkorn and S.J. Hassol, eds., Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications (Oslo: WWF International Arctic Programme, 2009).
7 7. Spohr, op. cit.; P. Oppenheimer and B. Israel, “The Arctic Region,” in R. Martella and B. Grosko, eds., International Environmental Law: The Practitioner’s Guide to the Laws of the Planet (Washington, DC: American Bar Association, 2014), pp. 933–62.
8 8. Young, op. cit.; Spohr, op. cit; Congressional Research Service, op. cit.; Smieszek, op. cit.; Joshua Tallis, “As ‘Arctic Exceptionalism’ Melts Away, the US Isn’t Sure What It Wants Next,” Defense One, Jan. 22, 2020; Timo Koivurova, “How US Policy Threatens Existing Arctic Governance,” Arctic Today, Jan. 17, 2020; Melody Schreiber, “As the Arctic Changes, International Cooperation May Be Put to the Test,” Arctic Today, July 25, 2018; Stephanie Pezard, Abbie Tingstad, and Alexandria Hall, “The Future of Arctic Cooperation in a Changing Strategic Environment,” RAND Europe (PE-268RC), 2018.
9 9. Gary E. Weir, “Virtual War in the Ice Jungle: ‘We don’t know how to do this’,” Journal of Strategic Studies 28, 2 (2005), pp. 411–27, https://doi.org/10.1080/01402390500088635.
10 10. Spohr, op. cit.
11 11. Smieszek, op. cit.; Oppenheimer and Israel, op. cit.; M. Byers, International Law and the Arctic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); M. Durfee and R.L. Johnstone, Arctic Governance in a Changing World (London: Rowman & Littlefeld, 2019).
12 12. Smieszek, op. cit.; O.S. Stokke, Disaggregating International Regimes. A New Approach to Evaluation and Comparison (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2012).
13 13. See Young, op. cit.; E.C.H. Keskitalo, Negotiating the Arctic: The Construction of an International Region (New York: Routledge, 2004); J. English, Ice and Water. Politics, Peoples, and the Arctic Council (Toronto: Penguin Group, 2013); E. Wilson Rowe, Arctic Governance: Power in Cross-Border Cooperation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018).
14 14. See Smieszek, op. cit.; O.S. Stokke and G. Hønneland, eds., International Cooperation and Arctic Governance: Regime Effectiveness and Northern Region Building (London: Routledge, 2007); O. Rogne, V. Rachold, L. Hacquebord and R. Corell, IASC after 25 Years: Special Issue of the IASC Bulletin, http://iasc25.iasc.info.
15 15. Arctic Council, “The Arctic Council: A Backgrounder,” updated September 13, 2018, https://arctic-council.org/index.php/en/about-us.
16 16. Juha Käpylä and Harri Mikkola, “On Arctic Exceptionalism,” FIIA Working Paper No. 85, April 2015, p. 5, https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/189844/wp85.pdf; Sergey Lavrov quoted in ITAR-TASS https://tass.com/russia/755311; see also Sam LaGrone, “Russian Foreign Minister: No Need for NATO in the Arctic,” USNI, Oct. 22, 2014
17 17. Young, op. cit.
18 18. Stephen D. Krasner, “Structural Causes and Regime consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables,” International Organization 36, 2 (1982), pp. 185–205, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706520; Idem, ed., International Regimes (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983).
19 19. Shulze, op. cit.; Smieszek, op. cit.
20 20. Piotr Graczyk and Timo Koivurova, “The Arctic Council,” in L. C. Jensen and G. Hønneland, eds., Handbook of the Politics of the Arctic (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2015), pp. 298–327; Paula Kankaanpää and Oran R. Young, “The Effectiveness of the Arctic Council,” Polar Research 31 (2012), pp. 1–14, https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v31i0.17176; Keskitalo, op. cit.; Congressional Research Service, op. cit.
21 21. See T. Koivurova and L. Heinämäki, “The Participation of Indigenous Peoples in International Norm-making in the Arctic,” Polar Record 42, 221 (2006), pp. 101–9, ; N. Sellheim, “The Arctic Council and the Advancement of Indigenous Rights,” in N. Sellheim, Y. V. Zaika, and I. Kelman, eds., Arctic Triumph. Northern Innovation and Persistence (Cham: Springer Switzerland Publishing, 2019), pp. 105–25.
22 22. Young, op. cit., Craczyk & Koivurova, op. cit.
23 23. Smieszek, op. cit.
24 24. E. J. Molenaar, “Governance of Arctic Shipping. Balancing Rights and Interests of Arctic States and User States,” in R. C. Beckman, T. Henriksen, K. D. Kraabel, E. J. Molenaar, and J. A. Roach, eds., Governance of Arctic Shipping: Balancing Rights and Interests of Arctic States and User States (Boston: Brill Nijhof, 2017), pp. 24–67; Smieszek, op. cit.
25 25. Graczyk & Koivurova, op. cit.
26 26. D.L. Downie and T. Fenge, eds., Northern Lights against POPs: Combating Toxic Threats in the Arctic (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003); Smieszek, op. cit.
27 27. See Congressional Research Service, op. cit.
28 28. For a review of these groups, see Smiezek, op. cit.
29 29. Smieszek, op. cit.
30 30. Schulze, op. cit.; By this means, diplomatic misunderstandings or (violent) conflicts are avertible through a current stream of reliable information among all regime actors, and institutionalized by a system of repeat consultations.
31 31. Schulze, op. cit.
32 32. Smieszek, op. cit.
33 33. Ibid.
34 34. See, for example, Timo Koivurova, “How US Policy Threatens Existing Arctic Governance,” Arctic Today, January 17, 2020; Melody Schreiber, “As the Arctic Changes, International Cooperation May Be Put to the Test,” Arctic Today, July 25, 2018; Stephanie Pezard, Abbie Tingstad, and Alexandria Hall, The Future of Arctic Cooperation in a Changing Strategic Environment, RAND Europe (PE-268RC), 2018.
35 35. “Looking North: Sharpening America’s Arctic Focus,” Speech by Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State, Rovaniemi, Finland, May 6, 2019, https:// www.state.gov/looking-north-sharpening-americas-arctic-focus/.
36 36. China’s growing interest in the region has to be analyzed in the context of its aggressive behavior in maritime affairs elsewhere, namely in the South China Sea and its over-fishing activities in species rich waters such as those right on the edge of the Galápagos marine reserve. See “South China Sea: What’s China’s Plan for its ‘Great Wall of Sand’?” BBC, July 14, 2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53344449; Morgan Otragus, US DoS Spokesperson, “China’s Empty Promises in the South China Sea,” September 27, 2020, https://www.state.gov/chinas-empty-promises-in-the-south-china-sea/; Dan Collyns, “Chinese Fishing Armada Plundered
