On Socio-Political dynamics of Inter-Polarity at the Arctic Circle Assembly, Reykjavik, 2023!

Prof. Kamrul Hossain and his young colleagues spoke on a session entitled “Inter-Polarity: Exploring Socio-Political links between the Arctic and the Third Pole”. The session was held on 21 October 2023 at the Harpa convention hall in Reykjavik and organized by the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law of the Arctic Centre in collaboration with the UArctic Chair in Arctic Legal Research and Education and the UArctic Law Thematic Network. The session highlighted the importance and need to explore and study the Arctic and the Third Pole Hindukush Himalaya together, where there is a common denominator. One such denominator is the Cryosphere, which brings the two regions together from various academic disciplines beyond natural sciences. The particular focus of the links is sought from social and human science perspectives given that the consequences of cryosphere melt in both regions will bring significant impacts in the socio-cultural, political, and legal dynamics, and in a transboundary context. Five speakers, including Prof. Hossain and four young promising PhD scholars, were on the panel, who shared their perspectives primarily built on the experiences from the first “Inter-Polar Conference: Connecting the Arctic with the Third Pole” held in September 2023 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Medy Dervovic (Reykjavik University) presented the comprehensive conference report drawn from the Kathmandu conference. He highlighted many interesting aspects and enthusiasm shared by scholars from the Arctic and the Third Pole during the Kathmandu conference, and a range of academic topics to be addressed and covered in the future. Eleni Kavvatha (UiT the Arctic University of Norway), Albert Albert van Wijngaarden (Cambridge University), and Marco Volpe (University of Lapland) followed with concrete examples of the links, such as impacts on lives and livelihoods of local and Indigenous communities, climate intervention and gio-engineering, and science diplomacy to promote collaboration.