They've encouraged established businesses to expand into developing countries; shepherded environmental security and conservation practices; looked to their indigenous elders for guidance; and hosted cold-weather emergency response seminars for political officials.
International organizations representing Northern environmental, social and economic interests have risen and flourished in the last decade. Two of the largest organizations, the Northern Forum and the Arctic Council, promote the interests of sub-Arctic and Arctic inhabitants throughout the world.
The Arctic Council is a non-governmental organization, or NGO, that brings together governments from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States. It was established in September 1996 with the self-appointed charge of promoting Arctic issues, especially sustainable development and environmental protection.
The Northern Forum is made up of 29 national or regional governments from 11 countries. Alaska and three Canadian provinces comprise the North American delegation.
Both organizations bring potential opportunities for economic expansion and political affiliation to the table, according to academics and Alaska officials.
Lassi Heininen, senior scientist at the Arctic Center in Lapland, Finland and head of the Northern Research Forum, said organizations developed in the sub-Arctic and Arctic Circle can serve as diplomatic and economic models for the rest of the world.
Heininen, who spoke at the University of Alaska Anchoragelast month, said key players in the northern regions make those areas ripe for internationally-geared political and financial advancement.
"What is today in the North will be tomorrow in the southern latitudes," Heininen said.
Mead Treadwell, the managing director of the Institute of the North at Alaska Pacific University and a member of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, said inter-regional relationships could be a basis on which to increase transportation and communication in the North.
The commission is looking into new ways to promote transportation links between the eight Arctic nations and to increase telecommunications throughout the entire region. Among those possibilities, he sited a northern transportation route -- which could encourage trade -- and increased use of the world's polar orbiting telecommunications satellites, one-sixth of which are over the Arctic at any given time.
Old relationships, new partners
Greg Wolf, the executive director of the World Trade Center Alaska, said existing relationships could blossom into new trade opportunities for the state.
"Alaska is pretty well engaged with its northern neighbors in terms of trade, investment, community ties and transportation links. Conceivably, that can lead to effects on international trade," he said.
Priscilla Wohl, the executive director of the Northern Forum said the cooperation between member nations does, in fact, substantially influence trade relationships.
"There are new trading partnerships forming every day," she said.
Wohl added that businesses can benefit from the forum's policy of shared information. Alaska companies have increased their exposure at the oil discoveries near Sakhalin Island, in the Russian Far East, which, she said, has been mutually beneficial to both states.
"Alaska businesses are making money, and Sakhalin is learning newer and better ways of setting up businesses," she said.
The forum, Wohl said, started because of concerns about the environment and sustainable growth. She noted, however, that a healthy government does not separate the two.
"The foundation of all this (our work) is economic development," she said. "You can't have a healthy rural community without having a healthy economy. Everything is too closely linked."
The Arctic Council, likewise, is increasing its economic policies. An adviser from the State Department, speaking on background, called the international organization "a win-win situation."
The council, she said, facilitates increased circumpolar contact and increases the amount of opportunities that exist for growing industries such as ecotourism. One working project links trade associations, state organizations, the World Wildlife Fund and promotional groups in Canada, Norway and Finland. The adviser said Alaska can both learn from the project and assist in its implementation by sharing resources.
The Arctic Center's Heininen noted that tourism programs developing in the north are not unusual, since, he said, tourists qualify as an interest group in many nations.
"This group is not a traditional interest group of stake holder, but they do have an influence," he said.
New relationships, old concerns
Arctic cooperation is not just an economically and ecologically-sound idea, but also politically viable in terms of international relationships.
So says Diddy Hitchins, a professor of political science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She said ties originally formed around the Arctic Circle and northernmost parts of the hemisphere before they did in the central and southern regions of the world. Countries in the North started cooperating to solve looming environmental problems even during the Cold War, she said.
That cooperation strengthened after the end of the stand-off in the early 1990s; and the Northern Forum and Arctic Council took root in 1996 and 1999.
Heininen indicated that those roots have grown even deeper and have expanded to other areas of the world after terrorism hit the East Coast.
"Because of 9-11, 2001, it is easy to say 'the West and Russia should cooperate' because there is a vision of a common enemy," he said. "But, before that day, there was not the vision."
Heininen noted that national governments are starting to turn their attention northward, politically speaking. About 60 percent of developing Russian territory falls in the northern regions, he said, and Canada has a separate council that deals specifically with issues pertaining to the higher latitudes.
He said member governments can gain more from the northern organizations than just new sources of revenue. Other areas from which member administrations might benefit include increased political security and stability; research; and new developments in environmental protection and maintenance, he said.
"They have some common goals, common plans," Heininen said. "To me, this indicates that governments are becoming more and more interested in the north."
Heininen added that the cooperation will likely continue in the future.
The Arctic Research Commission's Treadwell agreed, adding that it is not clear where it might end.
"We haven't really found all the ways, yet, that we can cooperate," he said.
