ABSTRACT
Are all observers in the Arctic Council (AC) the same? This chapter traces the historical development of the Arctic Council’s Rules of Procedure from the original version adopted in 1998 until the procedural reform implemented in 2013, and how these Rules have shaped the status and role of observers in Arctic Council science cooperation. The analysis shows how the observer policy has been altered from a flexible, informal and bottom-up approach to a more rule-based, formalised and top-down approach in reaction to the increasing global recognition of a changing Arctic, accompanied by an increase in the number of applications for observer status in the Arctic Council. Despite their formal status as equal participants, political considerations affect the admission and integration process of observers and influence who gets admitted in the first place, but also how well and what role observers perform after admission.
