Eight Nations, One Region: The Arctic Council Explained

The Arctic Council is the Arctic’s premier cooperative institution

The Arctic Council is the Arctic’s premier cooperative institution. Svein Vigeland Rottem, a senior research fellow at Norway’s Fridtjof Nansen Institute and a recognized authority on Arctic governance, security, and the Council, shares his insights on this critical entity in The Geopolitical Puzzle podcast.

The Arctic Council, founded in 1996, unites the eight Arctic states – Canada, Denmark (via Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States – to promote environmental protection, sustainable development, and scientific collaboration across the vast High North.

As Rottem explains, the forum’s consensus-based model deliberately excludes military and hard security issues, allowing focus on shared challenges like climate change, pollution, and biodiversity amid rapid ice melt.

The conversation highlights the Council’s enduring value even as geopolitics strains it. A major turning point came in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the other seven members to pause full operations, sidelining Russia and disrupting projects. Rottem analyzes this “pause,” its impacts on leadership rotation and working groups, and the broader challenges of maintaining dialogue in a region increasingly shaped by great-power competition, new shipping routes, and resource interests.

This episode is part of a dedicated Arctic season on The Geopolitical Puzzle, making it an ideal primer on why cooperation remains vital despite tensions. Rottem’s expertise delivers clear, evidence-driven insights without overwhelming jargon, blending historical context with contemporary analysis.

In an era when the Arctic’s transformation accelerates—driven by warming temperatures and strategic stakes—this concise discussion underscores the Council’s role as a rare venue for inclusive regional governance.

Juan Carlos Giraldo.