Dr Anthony Speca                            ARC0020

Written evidence submitted by Dr Anthony Speca, Managing Principal, Polar Aspect

1. Thank you for the opportunity to submit evidence to the inquiry on the UK and the Arctic Environment, recently called by the UK Parliament Environmental Audit Sub-Committee on Polar Research.  This evidence focuses particularly on the question posed in the call for evidence asking what role the UK could play in reviving or replacing the Arctic Council.

Personal and professional introduction

2. I am an educator, geographer and Arctic specialist.  I am Managing Principal of Polar Aspect (www.polaraspect.com), a UK-based consultancy I founded in 2012, and through which I now focus primarily on Arctic-related education.  I have lived and worked in Arctic Canada, and I have travelled elsewhere in the North American and European Arctic.

3. I view the Arctic first and foremost as a homeland, especially for its Indigenous peoples, where human development and environmental sustainability both matter.  Inspired to share this vision of the Arctic with younger generations, in 2016 I created and launched the world’s only secondary-school Model Arctic Council (MAC) programme.  I have since offered numerous MAC conferences in collaboration with schools in the UK and Spain, as well as undergraduate MAC conferences in collaboration with universities in the UK and Canada.  I also launched an online MAC delegate training and conference programme for schools, and my ‘Polar Aspect MACs’ have reached hundreds of students from the UK and many other countries.

4. I combine my innovative educational work with faculty appointments to Norwich School and the University of East Anglia in the UK, and to Trent University in Canada.  I teach Philosophy, Politics and Economics at upper secondary-school level, and Geography and Circumpolar Studies at university level.  I also serve as Managing Director of the Læra Institute for Circumpolar Education, an institute that I helped to establish within the international University of the Arctic (UArctic).

5. Formerly, I was a senior policy official with the Government of Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic.  I directed a team of analysts advising policymakers on fiscal and economic issues, and I helped to strategise negotiations for the devolution of lands and resources from Ottawa.  I also represented Nunavut on intergovernmental panels dealing with fiscal relations, and on regulatory panels dealing with the mining industry.  Through Polar Aspect I continued to advise the Government of Nunavut on fiscal policy and devolution, until turning in 2016 to Arctic-related education.

Education and the UK role in the Arctic

6. The recent call from the Environmental Audit Sub-Committee on Polar Research for evidence on the UK and the Arctic Environment rightly stresses the UK’s role in Arctic-related scientific research, diplomacy and military support.  I believe that the UK has another positive role to play in the Arctic—through education.

7. There is a broad context to this discussion, but the scope of the call for evidence does not explicitly include education as one of the areas in which the UK has a role to play in the Arctic.  It may be that the scope of the Sub-Committee’s inquiry could usefully be widened.  Nonetheless, to remain within scope, I will confine the bulk of my remarks more specifically to the role education can play in the UK’s contribution to the Arctic Council.

8. Before I do, however, I would like to call the Sub-Committee’s attention briefly to a few more general points about education and the UK’s role in the Arctic:

• 8a.  The UK is not as well connected to international networks of educators (and researchers) concerned with the Arctic as it could and should be.  For example, apart from in Scotland, where the nine universities of the Scottish Arctic Network together form an official institute within the UArctic consortium, there are few UK universities having membership of UArctic, despite the UK’s long history teaching (and researching) the Arctic at undergraduate and graduate levels.

• 8b.  More of the teaching (and research) about the Arctic in the UK is in the physical sciences, and less in the social sciences, humanities or arts.  There is no doubt about the critical place of the Arctic in physical systems, especially the planetary climate system.  But the Arctic is also a homeland, most especially to Arctic Indigenous peoples, and an equally critical part of the global human community.  The UK’s contribution to understanding and promoting the well-being of the Arctic, as well as the UK’s success at advancing the UK’s interests in the Arctic, will be limited so long as Arctic social sciences, humanities and arts receive comparatively less attention in teaching (and research).

• 8c.  The Arctic is not well emphasised at primary or secondary levels in the UK.  School curricula tend to focus more on the Antarctic, and the Arctic does not feature strongly, for instance, in GSCE or A-Level specifications in Geography.  While it would not be appropriate for school curricula to emphasise the Arctic over other important regions or topics about which children should learn, the comparative lack of attention to the Arctic in the school curriculum does not seem commensurate with the deep UK connections to, and interests in, the Arctic—connections and interests that the Sub-Committee took pains to underscore in their call for evidence.

9. Indeed, the Sub-Committee pointed out that ‘Northern Shetland is closer to the Arctic than it is to London, and the UK has always had more extensive Arctic interests than are sometimes acknowledged’.  I suggest that an important part of the reason that the UK’s deep connections to the Arctic remain unacknowledged is a lack of awareness about them.

10. It is education’s role to promote that awareness, especially within the context of a broader understanding of the Arctic as a critical part of both the planetary climate system and the global human community.  This understanding must include at its heart an understanding of the Arctic as a homeland, and a respect for Arctic peoples, their interests and their rights.

Education and the UK’s contribution to the Arctic Council

11. Focusing more specifically on question of the UK and the Arctic Council, I also believe that education has a significant role to play in enhancing the UK’s contribution to the Arctic Council’s future.

12. It has never been more urgent to support the work of the Arctic Council.  With the pause in Arctic Council diplomacy following Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, the future of the Arctic as a coherent international region is in doubt.  Considering the Arctic’s place in the planetary climate system and the global human community—both as a unified whole, and in all its diversity and difference around the Pole—the idea of the Arctic as a coherent international region must be safeguarded.  It seems impossible to tackle many of the environmental and social problems in the region, many of which cross borders and which also implicate the rest of the globe, without a coordinated regional approach.

13. Moreover, the Arctic Council is unique in adopting consensus-based diplomacy involving Arctic Indigenous peoples alongside Arctic states.  The Arctic Council offers Arctic Indigenous peoples at least some of the voice and power that they rightly deserve regarding matters affecting their homelands.  It must also be remembered that Arctic Indigenous peoples had been organising themselves across Arctic state borders as far back as the Sámi Assembly of 1917, long before Mikhail Gorbachev’s famous 1987 Murmansk speech launched the diplomatic processes that eventually resulted in the Arctic Council.  The idea of a coherent international Arctic arguably begins with Arctic peoples as much or more as it does with the diplomacy between Arctic states, and whatever contributions the UK makes to reviving or replacing the Arctic Council must acknowledge, respect and promote the voice and rights of Arctic Indigenous peoples.

14. Education has an important role to play in promoting this vision of a ‘human Arctic’.  The popular images of the Arctic all tend to be of an unpeopled Arctic.  The popular Arctic of fragile wilderness, savage wastes, intrepid expeditions, unclaimed territories, unexploited resources, military bases and melting ice is an Arctic devoid of anyone except explorers, scientists, prospectors, soldiers, and environmental activists.  Moreover, these actors all tend to be from outside the Arctic, perpetuating the damaging colonial history of the Arctic.

15. The educational mission to explode these false and damaging images of the Arctic must surely involve today’s politicians, civil servants, researchers, activists, business-people and others taking decisions that affect the UK’s role in the Arctic, and indeed affect the Arctic itself directly.  But perhaps more importantly, this educational mission should include the youth of today who will be the future politicians, civil servants, researchers, activists and business-people concerned with the Arctic.

16. An important part of this educational mission should focus on the Arctic Council.  With its consensus-based approach to the region, and with Arctic Indigenous peoples around its negotiating table, the Arctic Council helps to counter the false and damaging images of the Arctic outlined above.  The Arctic Council is by no means a perfect institution, and there may be a case for certain reforms.  But if the UK wishes to play a constructive role in the future of the Arctic Council, the UK should take steps to highlight the important role the Arctic Council plays in helping to safeguard the ‘human Arctic’.

Model Arctic Council and the UK’s contribution to the Arctic Council

17. As an educator who has developed the world’s only Model Arctic Council (MAC) diplomatic simulations for secondary schools today, as well as some of the only MAC simulations in the world for university, I believe that very useful tools for achieving this educational mission already exist.

18. As the global climate changes, the Arctic has become one of the most fascinating regions on the planet for youth.  Yet like most people, they tend to think of the Arctic in the false and damaging ways described above.  They are surprised to learn that it is in fact home to four million people, many of them Indigenous peoples living there since time immemorial.  And they have mostly never heard of the Arctic Council, despite its role as the premier international forum dedicated to the region.

19. My ‘Polar Aspect MAC’ conferences are simulations of the Arctic Council’s crucial diplomatic work.  Since 2016, I have offered over two dozen MACs to hundreds of pupils and students from nearly 40 home countries.  I have collaborated with schools and universities in Canada, Spain and—above all, the UK where I live and work—and I have made my MACs available both in person and online.

20. The pupils and students participating in Polar Aspect MACs play the roles of diplomats from Arctic states and Indigenous peoples.  Their task is to negotiate common solutions to some of the most pressing environmental, social, economic and political challenges facing not only the Arctic, but our world as a whole.  Like diplomats at the real Arctic Council, they must take all their decisions unanimously—a welcome antidote to today’s hyper-partisan politics.

21. By highlighting the Arctic Council, and by promoting the idea of the ‘human Arctic’, Polar Aspect MACs explode false and damaging images of the Arctic.  Pupils and students participating in MAC learn about the Arctic’s place in both the planetary climate system and the global human community.  They also learn much about themselves—about their role as global citizens, and the value of communication, collaboration and consensus.

22. Feedback from pupils and students who participate in Polar Aspect MACs is overwhelmingly positive.  They are convinced that they have learned much about the Arctic and Arctic peoples, and about the importance of the Arctic Council for the region.  I invite the Sub-Committee to visit the websites of some of my Polar Aspect MACs to read testimonials there, and to learn more about these innovative educational programmes—for instance, the Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC, normac.polaraspect.com) and the Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC, scotmac.polaraspect.com).  It would not be appropriate to repeat the large volume of positive testimonials here, but two testimonials give a flavour relevant to this discussion:

• 22a. Before participating in SCOTMAC, my knowledge of the Arctic and its peoples was incredibly limited.  To be entirely honest, I didn’t even know the Arctic Council existed.  However, after the conference I feel like I have learnt so much more about the Arctic in a diplomatic, social and environmental sense.  In particular, I have learnt so much about the current issues its peoples are facing. – University student

• 22b. Before the conference I thought the Arctic was a cold and desolate desert, with some nice places to take photos and that’s it. Now I’m excited about the new knowledge I’ve acquired, and I feel like studying and reading more about this region. – Secondary-school pupil

23. In seeking to contribute to the Arctic Council at this difficult time for Arctic diplomacy, the UK could benefit from promoting MAC.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the League of Nations benefitted from the goodwill generated among the UK public through ‘League of Nations Societies’, and from model simulations of League diplomacy.  Today, the United Nations gains exposure and goodwill through many Model United Nations simulations taking place regularly at schools and universities across the UK.  MAC could help achieve the same for the Arctic Council—and with Polar Aspect MACs, the UK already has a head-start in this educational mission.

24. It is my ambition to use my Polar Aspect MACs to expose as many pupils and students as I can to the Arctic, its peoples and its challenges; to the work of the Arctic Council; and to the idea of the Arctic as a homeland.  Already, the Scottish Government has contributed financial support through its Arctic Connections Fund to two university-level Polar Aspect MACs in 2022 and 2023, which I ran in collaboration with the Scottish Arctic Network.  Part of the rationale for this support was to underscore Scotland’s connections to the Arctic—which by extension are also the UK’s connections.

25. Yet there is a limit to how much Polar Aspect MACs can be scaled up without further partnership.  As one of the original Arctic Council Observers, having invested in the success of the Arctic Council since it was established, the UK should consider how it could support MAC as an educational part of its wider diplomatic effort to support the real Arctic Council.

Summary of points and recommendations

26. Thank you again for the opportunity to submit evidence to the Sub-Committee’s inquiry on the UK and the Arctic Environment.  In this submission, I have suggested the following:

• 26a.  The Sub-Committee should consider widening the inquiry to include the role of education in strengthening the UK’s Arctic connections and promoting the UK’s Arctic interests.

• 26b.  It is critical that the UK support the Arctic Council at this difficult time for Arctic diplomacy, and any such support must acknowledge, respect and promote the voice and rights of Arctic Indigenous peoples.

• 26c.  Education has a role to play in the UK’s effort to support the Arctic Council, not least in countering misapprehensions of the Arctic as unpeopled, and in promoting the Arctic Council’s role as the premier forum for the ‘human Arctic’.

• 26d.  As one of the Arctic Council’s original Observers, having invested in the success of the Arctic Council since it was established, the UK should consider the value of supporting Model Arctic Council as a means of supporting the real Arctic Council.

27. I stand ready to assist the Sub-Committee, as well as the wider UK Parliament and Government, in pursuit of these recommendations.

April 2023