The Arctic Century

The second edition of The Arctic—Our Common Home gathered diplomats, parliamentarians, scholars and entrepreneurs in Petrozavodsk. Four plenary presentations mapped the collapse of regional mechanisms, the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor, the financing of the Russian Arctic and the broader geopolitical order in which the region must now be read.

A Danish scientist and municipal leader present their vision for the future of small settlements in Greenland, which are experiencing severe housing shortages, youth outflow, gender imbalances, and a shortage of jobs and social services. Sustainable settlements require the development of fishing, processing, and tourism, which are in need of government attention, which is currently lacking.

Two decades after the 2008 banking collapse, Iceland's image of equality and democracy has given way to an entrenched elite, soaring housing prices, and a young generation forced into rent slavery or emigration—framed around a cry from the heart of an Icelandic writer ahead of the August EU referendum.

The arrest of 15 members of a cross-border drug network in Tromsø, Norway, has uncovered an organized crime group active in Sweden and Norway, recruiting 15-year-olds into its illegal activities. Authorities vow to crack down on the growing drug trafficking.

Norway has become the first country to sign on to France's nuclear deterrence program, raising questions about escalation risks and the country's own security calculus amid Støre's contradictory statements about French nuclear capabilities.

Finland's housing market faces a deepening oversupply crisis as demographic aging is set to release up to a third of the country's housing stock over the next two decades, with empty apartments already concentrated in smaller towns and migration-loss areas.

A strike on three Eimskip container ships has exposed a broader dispute over the replacement of Icelandic crews with cheaper foreign labor, with the Seamen's Association demanding a guaranteed minimum of ships crewed by Icelanders.

Finland's loss of an independent monetary policy after adopting the euro is increasingly cited as a factor limiting the country's ability to adjust to economic shocks, with public debt nearing 90% of GDP and child poverty rising sharply.