Can Hybrid Cooperation Make Arctic Offshore Drilling Safer?

The rapid pace of Arctic melting has made the region’s massive oil and gas resources increasingly accessible. The Obama Administration’s 2015 decision to issue proposed rules for Arctic offshore oil and gas exploration and to provide conditional approval of Shell Oil’s Chukchi Sea drilling plans reinforce the Arctic as an expanding frontier. In this talk we will explore how “hybrid cooperation” can serve as a critical tool for addressing these regulatory and governance challenges. In this form of cooperation, diverse stakeholders at multiple levels of government intertwine their efforts, either through creating institutions that bring them together or through integrating each other’s work in the agreements and regulations they develop. The talk will examine examples at transnational, national and subnational levels of cooperation and explore their benefits and limitations. These instances serve as important examples of possible pathways forward in this context and other complex governance contexts.

WebEx address for online attendees: https://umn.webex.com/umn/onstage/g.php?d=749731945&t=a
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