U.S. President Donald Trump left many scratching their heads when it was rumored that he was looking to purchase the large island nation of Greenland from Denmark. While any potential deal seems highly unlikely, the event shows the changing opinion within the U.S. government toward engagement with the Arctic region. Because of climate change, large sheets of arctic ice are melting, exposing vast stores of natural gas and oil. With Russia and China already miles ahead with their Arctic strategies, can the U.S. catch up?

Professor Paul Arthur Berkman is a science diplomat, applying, training and refining informed decision-making to balance national interests and common interests for the benefit of all on Earth across generations. In 2009, as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the University of Cambridge, Professor Berkman chaired the Antarctic Treaty Summit at the Smithsonian Institution, resulting in the first book on science diplomacy as well as a Congressional Resolution adopted with unanimous consent by the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. The following year, he co-directed the first formal dialogue between NATO and Russia regarding environmental security in the Arctic Ocean.  Most recently, Professor Berkman was awarded the Fulbright Arctic Chair 2021-2022 by the US Department of State with funding from the US Congress and support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Professor Berkman built international networks at Tufts University from 2015-2020 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He founded the first Science Diplomacy Center in the world in an academic institution, now directed through EvREsearch LTD, where he is the Chief Executive Officer. In addition to coordinating the Arctic Options/Pan-Arctic Options projects from 2013-2021, Professor Berkman is the senior editor of a new book series on informed decision-making for sustainability that was launched in 2020. Professor Berkman is a Faculty Associate with the Program on Negotiation (PON) at the Harvard Law School, Associate Director of Science Diplomacy in the Harvard-MIT Public Disputes Program, and an Associated Fellow with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), developing global initiatives with science diplomacy and its engine of informed decision making.  For his contributions, Professor Berkman has been honored with awards in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russian Federation, Norway, New Zealand, and Japan.

Read more about Professor Paul Berkman here and the Science Diplomacy Center here.
Information about the UNITAR Executive Summer Programme on Innovations in Sciences Diplomacy can be found here.