New Frontiers: Contested Claims in Arctic Exploration

The Arctic has gained increasing international interest, often yielding tense circumpolar politics as the eight Arctic nation states - Canada, Denmark (Greenland and Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States - navigate sovereign claims in the polar region. The attraction is due, in part, to the thawing ice that increases accessibility to the land; temperatures in the Arctic are rising twice the rate than the rest of the world. Nation-states’ interests often conflict with the interests of the Arctic’s Indigenous Peoples, who have sought to develop their own comprehensive policies with regard to land claims. These changes in the Arctic region are addressed through ongoing dialogue between the various actors involved that include nation states, intergovernmental organizations, Indigenous Peoples' organizations, the United Nations, and the European Union. The Arctic is a new frontier in foreign policy with coinciding political, military, economic, social, and environmental pressures. 

Featured Speakers: 

Dr. Nadine Fabbi, Managing Director of the Canadian Studies Center and Arctic & International Relations in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington

Professor Vincent Gallucci, Director of the Canadian Studies Center and Arctic & International Relations in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington

Ms. Harkiran Rajasansi, Consul in the Foreign Policy and Diplomacy Service Section at the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle, Washington

Ms. Eileen Hynes, National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow in the Arctic, World Affairs Council World Educator 2016-2017, and Director of Thematic Studies at the Lake and Park School 

More Information:

Dr. Nadine Fabbi:

Nadine C. Fabbi is Managing Director of the Canadian Studies Center and Arctic and International Relations in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington; and Lead for the Arctic International Policy Institute Arctic Fellows initiative in the Jackson School. Her doctorate is in Educational Leadership and Policy in the Faculty of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include how we understand the Arctic as a unique region in the field of area studies and international studies and what this means in higher education; how Arctic Indigenous internationalism is influencing international relations and regimes such as the Arctic Council; and how policy and spatial activism in Arctic foreign and domestic policies are reshaping how we think about international relations and social justice.

Nadine is founder and editor of Arctic and International Relations Series, a publication that focuses on understanding the Arctic as a unique world region where Indigenous peoples, nation-states, non-governmental organizations, and civil society are working together to create a distinctive Arctic voice and perspective in international relations. Current publications include: “Development of a Québec Arctic policy in partnership with the Inuit of Nunavik” (Arctic and International Relations Series 1, 2015); “Inuit foreign policy and international relations in the Arctic” (Jensen & Hønneland, Eds., Handbook on the Politics of the Arctic, 2015); “Inuit foreign policy and international relations in the Arctic” (Arctic Yearbook 2012); and “Geopolitics, Arctic Council, and Arctic resources” with Gallucci and Hellmann (Fishing People of the North: Cultures, Economies, and Management Responding to Change, 2012.

Nadine is the founder and program director for the Jackson School of International Studies’ biennial Task Force on the Arctic that takes seniors to Ottawa for a week to visit with embassies of Arctic nation-states, federal departments, local organizations and scholars. She has served as a visiting faculty at the Coastal and Marine Management Program, University of the Westfjords in Iceland; and for the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

Nadine is a founding member and chair of the minor in Arctic Studies at the University of Washington – a joint interdisciplinary minor between the School of Oceanography and Jackson School of International Studies. She is the Council Representative for University of the Arctic and serves on its Academic Leadership Team; and serves as a board member for the University’s Future of Ice initiative.

Professor Vincent Gallucci:

Vince Gallucci is a faculty member in several different academic programs at the UW.  He is a member of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, and an adjunct faculty member of the School of Marine Affairs, the Graduate Program in Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management, and the Jackson School of International Studies.  These departments reflect his broad interests.  Vince received a B.Sc. in physics from the SUNY at Stony Brook, a M.Sc. in biophysics from the SUNY at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. from N.C. State University in Statistics.  He has almost two decades of active research as a marine biologist working on benthic ecosystems in North temperate and tropical systems.  He worked for over a decade on marine resource management in developing countries from Central and South America to Africa.

Professor Gallucci has experience in two primary areas of interests, one of which is Arctic policy and conservation. His group in the Canadian Arctic Studies Center is having major roles in Arctic fishery policy and governance. He works with Asian, European, Russian and Canadian governmental agencies, especially relative to Arctic Council issues, procedures, etc. This work has a strong flavor of Inuit policy and governance. The second interest is in the conservation management of elasmobranches, especially sharks and in cold water, such as the Arctic. This work has been applied in the North Pacific and North Atlantic environment.

Harkiran Rajasansi:

Ms. Rajasansi is a career diplomat with Global Affairs Canada (formerly the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade & Development), serving as Consul and the Program Manager for the Foreign Policy and Diplomacy Service Section at the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle, Washington State. Ms. Rajasansi’s role at the Consulate focusses on the Canada US bilateral relationship in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Key areas of interest include the Arctic, defense and security, energy and environment, and competitiveness

Ms. Rajasansi has served abroad at the Embassy of Canada in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 2005 to 2007. In Ottawa, she has had assignments in the West Europe division, been Canada’s representative on the Committee for Trade and Investment at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and was a senior policy advisor at the Privy Council Afghanistan Task Force.  She also has worked in the Minister of Foreign Affairs office as a departmental advisor, and has had assignments in policy and planning and in the North America Branch, prior to departing for Seattle.

Born in the United Kingdom to Indian origin parents, Ms. Rajasansi joined the Canadian Foreign Service in January 2003.  She grew up in Kitchener, Ontario and has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Science from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London UK.  She is married and has two children. She took up her present duties at the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle, in September 2012.

Eileen Hynes:

Eileen Hynes is currently the Director of Thematic Studies at the Lake and Park School in Seattle, where she works throughout the school with each of the classrooms and all of the teachers. In 2012, Eileen was named a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. She traveled to Arctic Svalbard with National Geographic in 2012 and has continued to contribute to the NatGeo learning community, most recently developing materials for the Washington State Geographic Alliance.  After returning from the Arctic where the effects of climate change were so pronounced, Eileen joined the NOAA Climate Stewards to further her own education and understanding of the causes and effects of climate change on the world’s systems as she worked to develop classroom materials to share with her students.  Eileen joined the National Center for Science Education Teacher Advisory Panel in 2015. She helped pilot the NCSEteach program to help K-12 teachers teach about evolution and climate change.  Eileen has also worked with EarthEcho International which also includes the World Water Monitoring Challenge, as part of their Learning and Education Advisory Panel since 2014.