Alexander Sergunin is Professor of International Relations at the St. Petersburg State University, Russia. His fields of research and teaching include International Relations Theory, Russian foreign policy thinking and making, Arctic politics. His most recent book-length publications include: Heininen L., Sergunin A., Yarovoy G. Russian Strategies in the Arctic: Avoiding a New Cold War (Moscow, 2014); Konyshev V. & Sergunin A. Contemporary Military Strategy (Moscow, 2014); Sergunin A. et al.  Contemporary International Relations Theories (Moscow, 2013); Joenniemi P. & Sergunin A. Laboratories of European Integration: City-Twinning in Northern Europe (Tartu, 2012); Konyshev V. & Sergunin A. The Arctic in International Politics: Cooperation or Competition? (Moscow, 2011).

Jørgen Wæver Johansen is mayor in the city of Kujalleq, Greenland and first vice chairman of the party Siumut. He was elected for the Inatsisartut (the parliament of Greenland) in 1999 and has since had four different ministerial posts, the latest in 2007 as Minister of Housing, Infrastructure, and Mineral Resources. From 2007 to 2010 he was the CEO of Greenland Venture. After 2010 he has subsequently been private operator until he was elected to the municipal council in the municipality Kujalleq in 2013, and thus became mayor.

Ellen Margrethe Basse, Professor in Environmental Law, Aarhus University.Scientific qualification: LLM, Dr.juris (habitation) & Jur.dr. (H.C.) at Uppsala University. Visiting professor at Georgia State University and University of Florida since 1993.  Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.She has published several books and articles on international, EU and national environmental, energy and climate law; public law; and legal theory. Her focus is now on the emerging of new legal thinking in environmental law with a special focus on the EU and the Arctic. 

Rasmus Jarlov (b. 1977) is a Member of the Danish Parliament representing the Conservative Party. Jarlov is currently chairman of the Defence Committee.

Michael Byers teaches at the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law. He has been a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, a Professor of Law at Duke University, and a Visiting Professor at the universities of Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Nordland (Norway) and Novosibirsk (Russia). Professor Byers’ most recent book is International Law and the Arctic (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He has written extensively about security issues and international politics more generally. He has published five books, including The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001, 2014), which won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize and has been translated into eight different languages and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (with Stephen M. Walt, 2007), which made the New York Times best seller list and has been translated into twenty-one different languages. Professor Mearsheimer has also written many articles that have appeared in academic journals like International Security, and popular magazines like Foreign Affairs and the London Review of Books. In 2003, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Søren Rysgaard studies marine microbiology and biogeochemistry, pertaining to the structure and function of Arctic marine ecosystems. This includes benthic-pelagic coupling, carbon and nutrient cycling in Arctic waters, sea ice processes, glacier-fjord-ocean interactions, and global change.

Steven E. Miller is Director of the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal, International Security, and co-editor of the International Security Program's book series, Belfer Center Studies in International Security. Previously, he was Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and taught Defense and Arms Control Studies in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is co-author of the monographs, War with Iraq: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives (2002) and Nuclear Collisions: Discord, Reform & the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime (2012)  Miller is editor or co-editor of more than two dozen books, including, most recently, The Next Great War? The Roots of World War I and the Risk of U.S.-China Conflict (December 2014) and DoDemocracies Win Their Wars? (August 2011).

Nils Wang is Rear Admiral in the Danish fleet, former Commander of the Royal Danish Navy and the current Commander of the Royal Danish Defence College. His record includes service in Greenland, the Baltic and the Arabian Gulf.

Minik Rosing is a professor of geology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. He is currently heading the multidisciplinary initiative Greenland Perspective, initiated by the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with the University of Greenland. His research is based on fieldwork in Greenland where he studies the formation of Earth's continents and the interaction between early Archean life and Earth environments and climate – but he also has a focus on the use of raw materials and the consequences for the Greenlandic society today. 

Per Stig Møller was the Minister of the Environment from 1990 to 1993, the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2001 to 2010, Minister for Culture from 2010 to 2011 and Minister for Culture and Ecclesiastical Affairs in 2011 until the election. He is currently a Member of the Danish Parliament for the Conservative Party. He is Dr.phil. and has published several books.

Dr. Hans Mouritzen is a senior research fellow at the 'Danish Institute for International Studies', where he is editor of 'Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook'. His constellation theory, emphasizing the spatial and historical dimension of international politics, was relaunched in the co-edited 'The Geopolitics of Euro-Atlantic Integration' (Routledge paperback 2007; Japanese translation 2010). In 2010 he published about classic and modern Finlandization in Foreign Affairs: 'Explaining Foreign Policy. The Diplomacy of the Russo-Georgian Conflict' (Lynne Rienner 2012, co-author).

Margunn Ebbesen, Conservative Party. Born 4 September 1962, Brønnøy, Norway
2013–: Member of the Storting for Nordland County.
Storting committees: 2013–: Member, Standing Committee on Justice
Parliamentary delegations: 2013–: Member, Delegation for Arctic Parliamentary Cooperation
Other political appointments: 2007–2013: Member, Brønnøy Municipal Executive Committee (Substitute chair and chair); 2007–2013: Member, Nordland County Council

Martin Breum, facilitator. Journalist / author of ‘Balladen om Grønland’ (The Greenland Dilemma) and ‘Når isen forsvinder’ (When the Ice Disappears), former tv-anchor with the Danish Broadcast Corporation, presently working on a series of tv-documentaries on Danish/Greenlandic/Faroese relations. Covered the Danish/Greenlandic LOMROG III continental shelf expedition to the Arctic Ocean / North Pole 2012.  

Sjurdur Skaale (b. 1967) is a journalist, politician, actor, singer and comedian from the Faroe Islands. He is one of the two Faroese Members of the Danish Parliament, where he represents the Faroese Social Democratic Party. Skaale is chairman of the Faroe Islands Committee, member of the Nordic Council, and deputy member of the Foreign Policy Committee. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Copenhagen University and is also part of the comedic duo Pipar & Salt.

Rob Huebert is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. He also severed as the associate director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. In November 2010, he was appointed as a member to the Canadian Polar Commission.Dr. Huebert has taught at Memorial University, Dalhousie University, and the University of Manitoba. His area of research interests include: international relations, strategic studies, the Law of the Sea, maritime affairs, Canadian foreign and defence policy, and circumpolar relations. He publishes on the issue of Canadian Arctic Security, Maritime Security, and Canadian Defence. He was co-editor of Commercial Satellite Imagery and United Nations Peacekeeping and Breaking Ice: Canadian Integrated Ocean Management in the Canadian North.

His most recent book written with Whitney Lackenbauer and Franklyn Griffiths is Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security, and Stewardship. He also comments on Canadian security and Arctic issues in both the Canadian and international media. 

Sara Olsvig is chairman of Inuit Ataqatigiit since 2014 and was elected for Inatsisartut (The Parliament of Greenland) in November 2014. She has been member of the Danish Folketing (The Danish Parliament) since 2011. She is former deputy in The Arctic Council (2011 – 2014) and Executive director of the ICC Greenland (2000 – 2011). In 2011 until 2014 she was the representative in the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. Currently she is member of the Foreign- and security policy committee in the Inatsisartut.  

Dr. Lassi Heininen is Professor of Arctic Politics at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland (Finland), Adjunct professor (Docent) of Northern Geopolitics at University of Oulu (Finland) and that at TrentUniversity (Ontario, Canada), and Visiting Professor at University of Akureyri (Iceland). He is also chairman of the Northern Research Forum’s Steering Committee and Leader of the UArctic-NRF Thematic Network on Geopolitics and Security Studies. His research fields include IR, Geopolitics, Security Studies, Environmental Politics, Northern and Arctic Studies, and Political History.

He is an author of more than 200 scientific publications (articles, books) and the Editor of the Arctic Yearbook, a peer-reviewed online international publication (see: www.arcticyearbook.com). Also, he was the Finnish Torchbearer of the Torch Relay to the North Pole for the XXII Olympic Winter Games of 2014 in the City of Sochi.

Tage Baumann, journalist and security policy expert. Born 1952. Upper secondary school leaving examination 1971, graduated from the Danish School of Journalism 1976. Editorial secretary, correspondent, head of the foreign affairs desk, and editorial writer for the Danish newspaper Aktuelt 1976-1987. Correspondent and responsible for the Radio News’ Foreign Affairs Desk 1987-1994. Responsible for security policy and Germany for the radio programme Orientering, DR-P1, 1994 to present. Has published the books Europas tyske bygmester about the German Federal Republic’s first 50 years (Fremad 1999) and Kriger i åbent landskab about the dilemmas faced by modern soldiers (Fremad 2002). Studies abroad in Berlin 1994-1995, in London (King’s College, Department of War Studies) 2001 and Royal United Services Institute, RUSI, 2013. Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS, London and regular participant in the annual Global Strategic Review conferences.

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is Professor of Political Science (specialization international relations) at the University of Tromsø- The Arctic University of Norway, as well as Research Associate at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). She is also a member of the Norwegian Royal Commission on Afghanistan investigating the Norwegian efforts in Afghanistan from 2001-2014, and is a 2015-2016 Fulbright Arctic Initiative scholar. Hoogensen Gjørv was the International Principal Investigator for the International Polar Year project “The Impacts of Oil and Gas Activity on Peoples of the Arctic using a Multiple Securities Perspective”, and is currently co-leader of the Arctic Extractive Industries PhD program that examines the impacts of extractive resource development on Arctic communities. She is also partner in two projects (Kolarctic and BARCOM) examining the physiological, social and economic impacts of resource industries on Arctic communities from a human security perspective (and the resulting policy implications). She writes about international relations theory, security theories including gender/feminist security theories, security in the Arctic, and civil-military interaction (both in Arctic as well as international operations settings, such as Afghanistan). She is the author of "International Relations, Security and Jeremy Bentham " (Routledge, 2005), and "Understanding Civil-Military Interaction: Lessons Learned from the Norwegian Model" (Ashgate, 2014), as well as lead co-editor (and contributing author) to "Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic" (Routledge, 2013), among other books and journal articles.

Anders Mosbech is leading an Arctic Environment group at Aarhus University with focus on research supporting environmental sustainable development of industrial activities in Greenland. His research interest includes impacts of industrial activities, seabirds, marine mammals, oil spill sensitivity analysis, marine ecology with focus on identification of key marine habitats including use of survey data, animal tracking data (satellite transmitters and data loggers) combined with oceanography and remote sense spatial data. Leader of over 20 arctic research expeditions. Leader of the joint Baffin Bay Environmental Study Program, focused on the potential effects of the oil industry (Aarhus University, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and the Greenland Bureau of Mineral Management). Co-chair for the Arctic Council project : Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA). It  is an integrated assessment of multiple drivers of Arctic change as a tool for Indigenous Peoples, Arctic residents, governments and industry to prepare for the future, in the Baffin Bay/Davis Strait Region (2014-  ). Co-PI for THE NOW PROJECT: Living Resources and Human Societies around the North Water in the Thule Area, NW Greenland. It is an interdisciplinary research project integrated by archaeologists, biologists and anthropologists, funded by the Velux Foundations and the Carlsberg Foundation (2014-2017). Member of the Committee for Greenlandic Mineral Resources to the Benefit of Society (Minik Rosing udvalget 2013-2014). Appointed member of Arctic Councils Expert Group on Ecosystem Based Management.

Anna Libak is currently the Foreign Editor of the Danish daily, Berlingske. She specialized in Russia and neighboring countries since 1996, and is regularly used in the media as a commentator of foreign policy matters in general and the Russian worldview in particular. She has written extensively over the years about Russia and the former Soviet Republics, and toured the country with a lecture on the Russian notion of power. She is member of the Executive Board of the Danish Foreign Policy Society.

Kristine Offerdal (b. 1974) is associate professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS). Offerdal's research publications focus on international relations in the High North, with a particular emphasis on US, EU and Norwegian politics in the region. She holds a PhD in political science from the University of Oslo with the thesis The politics of energy in the European High North: Norway and the ‘petroleum dialogue’ with the USA and the EU. Offerdal was program manager of the international research program Geopolitics in the High North www.geopoliticsnorth.org2011-2013. Offerdal is currently member of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry’s “Team Arctic” and board member of the PETROSAM2 program of the Research Council of Norway. Her most recent publication coedited with Rolf Tamnes, is the book Geopolitics and security in the Arctic. Regional dynamics in a global world, New York: Routledge. 

Aleqa Hammond (b. 1965) is a Greenlandic politician and former leader of the Social Democratic Siumut party. Hammond grew up in Uummannaq, but spent her youth travelling the world, including a study abroad period at Nunavut Arctic College in Canada. An advocate for Greenlandic independence, Hammond became Greenland’s first female prime minister in 2013, but stepped down from her post in 2014. She is currently a Member of the Danish Parliament, vice-chair of the Greenland Committee and protector of Avannaata Qimussersua (The Big Dogsledge Race).

Kristian Jensen (b. 1971) is the Foreign Minister of Denmark, Deputy Prime Minister, and spokesperson for the Liberal Party. A Member of the Danish Parliament since 1998, Jensen was the Minister of Taxation from 2004 to 2010 and member of the Public Accounts Committee from 2011 to 2015. In 2003, Jensen published the book “Hurra for globaliseringen” (in English: Three Cheers for Globalisation) in which he expressed his views on globalisation and free trade.

Esben Lunde Larsen (b. 1978) is the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science. He has been a Member of the Danish Parliament since 2011 and represents the Liberal Party. Spokesman on Higher Education and Research 2012-2015; spokesman on Education Grants 2011-2013; member of the European Affairs Committee and Environment Committee 2011-2015; member of the Research, Innovation and Further Education Committee, the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, and the Rural Districts and Islands Committee 2011-2015. Lunde holds a Master’s degree in Theology from the University of Copenhagen and obtained an Industrial PhD from the University of Copenhagen and Grundtvigsk Forum in 2012.

Erik V. Lorenzen is the Arctic Ambassador for Denmark and a Senior Arctic Official in the Arctic Council, a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues faced by the Arctic governments and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Lorenzen was the Danish Ambassador to Canada from 2009 to 2013. He holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and entered into the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen (b. 1977) is a Member of the Parliament of Greenland and a Member of the Danish Parliament for the left-wing separatist political party Inuit Ataqatigiit. Larsen has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Greenland, and has been a board member of several organisations, including vice-chair of Transparency International Greenland (2012-14), vice-chair and chairwoman of Greenland’s Council on Human Rights (2013-14), and chairwoman of the National Council for Children (2012-15).

Henrik Dam Kristensen (b. 1957) is a Member of the Danish Parliament for the Social Democratic Party and current chairman of the Danish Nordic Council Delegation. Kristensen has held various ministerial offices, including Agriculture and Fisheries (1994-1996), Food (1996-2000), Social Affairs (2000-2001), Transport (2011-2013) and Employment (2014-2015). Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2006. President of the Nordic Council from 2009 to 2011.

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen (b. 1941) is the former Foreign Affairs Minister of Denmark (1982-93), leader of the Danish Liberal Party (1984-98), and President of the European Liberals (1995-2000). In 1992, Ellemann-Jensen initiated the Council of the Baltic Sea States and EuroFaculty along with Hans-Dietrich Genscher. In 1998, he co-founded the Baltic Development Forum of which he is still chairman. Ellemann-Jensen is non-executive director of various boards of Danish and international companies and has published several books.

Holger K. Nielsen (b. 1950) is a Member of the Danish Parliament, former Foreign Affairs Minister (2013-2014), and former chairman of the Socialist People’s Party (1991-2005). He also served as the Minister for Taxation from 2012 to 2013. Nielsen holds a Master’s degree in Social Science and Danish from the University of Copenhagen. Appointed member of the Nordic Council in 1982. Member of the Presidium of the Danish Parliament from 2007 to 2012.

Stéphane Roussel is Professor of Political Science at the École nationale d’Administration publique in Montréal, QC. His research interests relate to Canadian defence policy, with particular focus on Canada’s relations with the United States and European countries. Prof. Roussel is the Canada Research Chair in Canadian Foreign and Defence Policy, Director of the Arctic Political and Security Observatory, and Director of the Centre for Study on Foreign Policy and Security. He is also Fellow at the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute as well as the Francophone Research Network on Peace Operations.