Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 581

  Thematic Network Update DISCUSSING & PROMOTING (REGIONAL) ARCTIC COOPERATION IN RUSSIA: HIGHLIGHTS FROM KARELIA IN 2014 Boris Khabarov & Joël Plouffe On May 23rd, 2014 the 4th International Conference “Innovative and Safe Cooperation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region” took place in Petrozavodsk, Russia. The agenda included topics relevant to the topic of cross-border cooperation in BEAR such as issues of (industrial) development in the High North and across the circumpolar North(s). The conference took place following the 11th International Summer School in Karelia (ISSK), and preceded the “EcoEfficient Project” workshop which reunited experts, practitioners and observers from Russia, Finland, Norway and Canada. Innovative and Safe Cooperation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region The 4th annual meeting “Innovative and Safe Cooperation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region” was organized in 2014 by the North Center at the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Science in Petrozavodsk. The event proved to be both topical and interesting considering the political and the global contexts in which it took place. It was therefore ripe for interesting debates and discussions between participants (NRF members and others) with Boris Khabarov is a Masters student at Petrozavodsk State University and at the Finnish-Russian Crossborder University. He took part in the 11th International Summer School in Karelia (ISSK) in May 2014. Joël Plouffe is PhD Candidate at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP – Montréal, Québec, Canada), Managing Editor of the Arctic Yearbook. He was an invited speaker at the ISSK and the 4th International Conference “Innovative and Safe Cooperation in the BEAR” organized by the North Center, and an observer during the “Eco-Efficient Tourism Project” workshop in Karelia on the 27/28 May 2014.