The Arctic Yearbook is calling for abstracts for its 2026 volume. This year’s theme is “Arctic Intelligence: Data, Knowledge Systems, and Self-Governance”.
Call for Abstracts (deadline): 16 March 2026 (250-400 words)
Draft papers (deadline): 19 June 2026 (4500-6500 words)
The Arctic Yearbook is calling for abstracts for its 2026 volume.
The Arctic Yearbook is an international and peer-reviewed volume which focuses on issues of regional governance, development, environmental politics, circumpolar relations, geopolitics and security, all broadly defined. It is an open access, online publication.
The theme for the 2026 volume is "Arctic Intelligence: Data, Knowledge Systems, and Decision-Making".
In recent years, "intelligence" has re-emerged as an important concept in global political, technological, and societal debates - most visibly through rapid advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and space technology; renewed emphasis on military and strategic intelligence; and increasing need for diverse forms of information, data, and knowledge. In the Arctic, these developments intersect with long-standing forms of expertise, including Indigenous Knowledges, environmental observation, scientific monitoring, and local decision-making practices. These various forms of "intelligence" are crucial to states and non-state actors at many levels of governance, specifically when advancing diverse notions of sovereignty and security as well as supporting self-determination.
The Arctic is also experiencing rapid change being driven by environmental transformations, technological developments, and quickly shifting geopolitical dynamics. Understanding these changes requires diverse forms of intelligence, underlining important questions that include how knowledge is produced, whose knowledge or data is recognized or marginalized, how decisions are made under uncertainty, and how complex Arctic systems - including human, technological, and environmental processes - are understood and governed.
Intelligence in the Arctic therefore extends far beyond military or state security domains. It encompasses computational systems and satellite infrastructures, climate and ecosystem data, statistical and predictive models, education and knowledge-sharing, media and disinformation, and collective forms of sense-making among communities, institutions, and polities. It also raises fundamental questions about power, extraction, ethics, sovereignty, and epistemological authority in a region where data, knowledge, and narratives are important for security, policy, and governance.
This volume seeks to advance a nuanced, interdisciplinary, and critical exploration of intelligence in and about the Arctic. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:
- Different understandings and applications of intelligence in Arctic research, policy, and practice
- Indigenous knowledge systems and their contributions to Arctic decision-making and resilience
- Media, information flows, narrative competition, disinformation, and communication in circumpolar contexts
- Artificial intelligence, automation, and data-driven approaches in Arctic governance, science, and montoring
- Intelligence and security dynamics in the Arctic, including strategic awareness and information-sharing
- Climate & environmental monitoring, modeling of Arctic change, and impacts to utilization of strategic minerals and data centers
- Data management, information-sharing infrastructures, data centers, and digital technologies in the Arctic
- Education and learning in Arctic societies
- Collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to producing and using Arctic knowledges
- Ethical and methodological considerations in Arctic research and data collection
- Interactions between human, non-human, and technological forms of intelligence
Other topics of contemporary significance to Arctic development, governance, geopolitics, security, and community well-being will also be welcome.
Abstracts should be 250-400 words and include author name(s), institutional affiliation and article, to be submitted to and . The deadline for abstracts is March 16, 2026. Notice of acceptance will be provided by March 27, 2026. Articles must be submitted by June 19, 2026. Publication is planned for Fall 2026.
We also welcome proposals for commentaries (1-3 page opinion pieces) and briefing notes (4-7 page analyzes) from experts and policymakers on current issues and events.
EDITOR
MANAGING EDITOR
Communication Manager
EDITORIAL BOARD
- Dr. Lawson W. Brigham (Global Fellow, Wilson Center Polar Institute; Research Faculty, University of Alaska Fairbanks)
- Dr. Daria Burnasheva (Senior Lecturer at Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, Sakha Republic)
- Dr. Miya Christensen (Professor at University of Stockholm, Sweden)
- Halldór Johannsson (Executive Director, Arctic Portal, Iceland)
- Dr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (Former President of the Republic of Iceland, Chair of the Arctic Circle)
- James Ross, (Gwich’in leader, Northwest Territories, Canada)
- Dr. Alexander Pelyasov (Russian Academy of Sciences; Director of the Center of Northern and Arctic Economics; Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, Russian Federation)