On the 3rd of October, Nunn School Associate Professor Margaret E. Kosal gave an invited talk at the “Circling the Arctic: Security and the Rule of Law in a Changing North” conference sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Law Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) and the Annenberg Public Policy Center. The virtual conference brought together over 35 top-tier experts to identify concrete actions and changes to soft and hard law governance structures that can address security challenges and threats arising from Climate Change’s effect on the Arctic.

Kosal spoke on “Governance, Technology, and Information Sharing in the Arctic – Implications for National Security” as part a session on how technology plays a role in the strategic security in the Arctic. She discussed the challenge of information sharing and communication in the Arctic. There exists no awareness or decision-support system to enable long-term environmental planning, near-term cooperative actions, or real-time responses to humanitarian, economic, environmental, scientific, or security needs in the high north. Arctic nations are pursuing technological approaches (e.g., novel satellite systems) to ameliorate this challenge driven by strategic interests, including their own populations in the Arctic territories, seeking natural resources for energy and other economic pursuits, and increasing geopolitical value of Arctic. A framework for coordinated information exchange between multiple civilian and defense authorities is needed. Implications for national security are explored considering absence or presence of such governance frameworks.