ABSTRACT
On 11 May 2017, the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation was adopted by the eight Arctic states at the occasion of the tenth Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting held in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Agreement entered into force on 23 May 2018, the speediest among the three agreements negotiated so far under the auspices of the Arctic Council (AC). After recapitulating the legal structure of the Agreement, this chapter examines the way in which this Agreement incorporates the legitimate interests of non-Arctic states and their scientists actively engaged in and contributing to the Arctic science. It argues that those provisions relevant to non-Arctic states and their scientists are the result of careful negotiations in the Scientific Cooperation Task Force (SCTF) established under the AC with the involvement of non-Arctic actors. This chapter demonstrates that the Arctic Council Observers, namely non-Arctic states and relevant international organisations such as the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), have substantively engaged in the SCTF discussions, despite their lack of decision-making powers. They represented the universal voice of scientists that the Arctic science should be further promoted and its international cooperation enhanced irrespective of their nationalities. Based on the experience of SCTF negotiation, this chapter ends with a future prospect as well as inherent limitations of the AC and its subsidiary bodies becoming legitimate law-making forums for those Arctic issues the interests in which go beyond the eight Arctic states.
