Building Common Interests in the Arctic Ocean With Global Inclusion

PAUL ARTHUR BERKMAN is a science diplomat, applying, training and refining informed decisionmaking to balance national interests and common interests for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.  He wintered in Antarctica on a SCUBA research expedition with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1981 and became a Visiting Professor at the University of California Los Angeles the following year at the age of 23, beginning to teach about science diplomacy.  Paul travelled to all seven continents before the age of thirty, leading to his textbook on Science into Policy: Global Lessons from Antarctica.  From research into action, as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, Paul chaired the Antarctic Treaty Summit at the Smithsonian Institution, resulting in the first book on Science Diplomacy as well as a Congressional Resolution adopted with unanimous consent by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.  The followingyear, applying skills of science diplomacy, he co-directed the first formal dialogue between NATO and Russia regarding Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean, which became the title of an edited book with over 75,000 downloads.  Prof. Berkman joined Tufts University from 2015-2020 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he founded the first Science Diplomacy Center in the world in an academic institution, which is now directed through EvREsearch LTD, where Prof. Berkman has been the Chief Executive Officer since 1999.  In 2021, Paul also became Director (from Boston) of the Science Diplomacy Center at MGIMO University in Moscow, creating a unique position to build common interests among allies and adversaries alike.  This objective has been explicit throughout his coordinating the Arctic Options / Pan-Arctic Options projects from 2013-2022 with support from national science agencies in the United States, Russian Federation, Norway, France, China and Canada.  Prof. Berkman is a Faculty Associate with the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School and Associate Director of Science Diplomacy in the Harvard-MIT Public Disputes Program as well as an Associated Fellow with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), training science diplomacy and informed decisionmaking with the diplomatic corps of many foreign ministries as well as next-generation leaders inclusively.  Paul is senior editor of the Springer book series on Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability, further triangulating education, research and leadership as elements of lifelong learning “for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.”   For his international, interdisciplinary and inclusive contributions, Prof. Berkman has been honoured with awards in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russian Federation, Norway, New Zealand and Japan.  Most recently,the United States Department of State and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded Paul the Fulbright Arctic Chair 2021-2022.   Paul is happily married with two daughters.

ALEXANDER N. VYLEGZHANIN, Doctor of Law, Professor, is a Head of the Program of International Law, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO- University). He is currently elected as a Vice-president of the Russian Association of International Law and a Vice-President of the Russian Association of the Law of the Sea. He is nominated by the Russian Federation to the list of arbitrators according to Annex VII of UNCLOS. He is also elected as a Member of the Presidium of the Committee of Experts on the Arctic and Antarctic of the Council of Federation (the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament). His major interest include General International Law, International Law of the Sea, Legal Regimes of Natural Resources, and Boundaries the Arctic. He has publicized a wide arrayof books on international issues, mainly in Russian. Prof. Vylegzhanin was awarded a rank of Academician by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (2000), and a Medal by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (2001) for his book “Legal Regime of Marine Natural Resources” (2001, in Russian).

ORAN R. YOUNG is a research professor at the Marine Science Institute and professor emeritus and co-director of the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California (Santa Barbara). His research focuses on theories of environmental governance with applications to issues relating to climate change, marine systems, and the polar regions. He also does comparative research on environmental governance in China and the United States. Dr. Young served for six years as founding chair of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the US National Academy of Sciences. He chaired the Scientific Steering Committee of the international project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC). He was a founding co-chair of the Global Carbon Project and from 2005 to 2010 chaired the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change. An expert on 3 Arctic issues, Dr. Young chaired the Steering Committee of the Arctic Governance Project and is the science advisor to the North Pacific Arctic Conferences. Past service in this realm includes co-chair of the Working Group on Arctic International Relations, member of the US Polar Research Board, founding board member of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, vice-president of the International Arctic Science Committee, chair of the Board of Governors of the University of the Arctic, consultant to the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, and co-chair of the 2004 Arctic Human Development Report. He is the author of more than 20 books. His recent books include Institutional Dynamics: Emergent Patterns in International Environmental Governance (2010) and On Environmental Governance: Sustainability, Efficiency, and Equity(2013). His forthcoming book is entitled Governing Complex Systems: Sustainability in the Anthropocene.