“To move towards an Empowered North – with Shared Voices, we delegates of the UArctic Congress, representing the membership of UArctic, assembled Oulu and Helsinki, Finland from September 3-7, 2018, declare the following:
We continue to work in close partnership with the Arctic Council to support science-informed decision-making, science advice, and science diplomacy.”
Establishment in 2024 of the Next-Generation Science Diplomats Committee is a significant advance with this UArctic thematic network, building capacities and empowering leadership with next-generation science diplomats.
Goals
The Science Diplomacy Thematic Network builds on international Arctic scientific cooperation that has been central to maintaining the high north as a region of low tension, helping to achieve progress with Arctic sustainability across generations. The Science Diplomacy Thematic Network will enhance transdisciplinary research, education and leadership at the intersections of science (natural sciences, social sciences and Indigenous knowledge) and society (Figure 1). It will engage the full range of stakeholders, from diplomats and other institutional decisionmakers across the spectrum of subnational-national-international jurisdictions to teachers and students in an international, transdisciplinary and inclusive (who, what, when, where, why and how) manner.
Science diplomacy in the Arctic has already proven its global relevance, as highlighted by the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperationsigned by the foreign ministers of the eight Arctic states as well as from the Governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands on 11 May 2017 at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska (Figure2, Table 1). Beyond governments, the Arctic Science Agreement requires active and influential contributions from the international Arctic science community to achieve progress with enhancing international Arctic scientific cooperation, requiring leadership with science diplomats.
The Science Diplomacy Thematic Network will involve transdisciplinary (Figure 1) research (natural sciences, social sciences, Indigenous knowledge) and education opportunities across the UArctic Thematic Networks to build capacities of next-generation science diplomats.
Conference sessions that help to enhance international Arctic scientific cooperation as mandated by the 2017 Arctic Science Agreement (Figure 2, Table 1), especially in view of the 5th International Polar Year 2032-2033, ;;
Science Diplomacy Clubs at institutions across UArctic;
International dialogues among high-level decision makers and global thought leaders that build common interests among nations by applying science diplomacy, as exemplified by the NATO Advanced Research Workshop that became the first formal dialogue between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia regarding security in the Arctic Ocean;
Next-Generation Science Diplomat Webinar Series about “Asking the Right Questions: Critical Themes in Science Diplomacy” (please see the Concept Note)
Student and faculty exchanges that relate to science-diplomacy research, education and leadership.
