The Arctic Council and the Crucial Partnership Between Indigenous Peoples and States in the Arctic

When the Arctic Council is functioning normally – something that we have not seen since many of its activities were “paused” as a result of the Ukraine conflict – it provides an important and indeed unique forum for cooperation between Arctic Indigenous Peoples and the eight states that are members of the Council.  As an Indigenous group leader and a former diplomat, respectively, the two authors have witnessed first-hand the value of that cooperation as well as its limitations. We recognize the difficulties posed to the Indigenous Peoples when the Council doesn’t function, and the promise it brings when it does.