The Arctic is governed from capitals far away—including Moscow, which oversees half of the region, and which is now locked in a geopolitical struggle with the Western capitals overseeing the other half. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended Arctic diplomacy, and one of the most important and fast-changing parts of our warming globe is fractured …
Author: Anthony Speca
Keynote at Haarlem Model United Nations
Thank you very much to the Secretariat of the Haarlem Model United Nations (HMUN) at Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem in the Netherlands—and in particular to the two HMUN Secretaries General, who were outstanding participants in my MAC Bilbao 5 conference earlier this year—for inviting me to speak at HMUN today. I was very pleased to be …
Bringing the Arctic to Abbeygate Sixth-Form College
I’m most grateful to Abby Lord for inviting me into two of her A-Level Geography classes at Abbeygate Sixth-Form College yesterday to speak with students about the Arctic. As with my visit to Ringsfield Primary School, I arrived in the full gear I would wear when ‘on the land’ in the Arctic, so that the …
Keynote at University of Nottingham Model United Nations
Many thanks to the University of Nottingham United Nations Society for inviting me to give a keynote talk at their Nottingham Model United Nations (NOTTSMUN) conference today. I’m proud to say that one of their Secretariat team participated in the second Norwich Model Arctic Council for University last year and, inspired by that experience, selected …
Scotland Model Arctic Council 2
I’ve just returned from Glasgow, where I ran the second Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC) at the Mary Robinson Centre for Climate Justice at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). A tremendous experience—easily one of the most intense and rewarding of the two-dozen-plus MACs that I’ve run, with some of the most engaged, energetic and committed student …
Norwich Model Arctic Council for Schools 7
This weekend, I ran my seventh Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC) for schools, still so far as I know the world’s only stand-alone Model Arctic Council programme for secondary-school pupils. NORMAC 7 involved 20 pupils from two schools and, like at WYCOMAC 3 and MAC Bilbao 5 this year, delegates grappled with the issue of …
Presentation at 25th Arctic Science Summit Week
This past Tuesday, I took part in a session on ‘Educational innovation and pedagogy for the Anthropocene Arctic’ at the 25th Arctic Science Summit Week in Vienna, Austria, organised by the International Arctic Science Committee, the Austrian Polar Research Institute and the University of Vienna. Together with my colleague Dr Sennan Mattar from the Mary Robinson …
Model Arctic Council Bilbao 5
I always look forward to returning each January to the wonderful city of Bilbao, Spain, to run Model Arctic Council Bilbao (MAC Bilbao) at Colegio Ayalde—now in its fifth year. Always my most ‘international’ conference, MAC Bilbao 5 took place last weekend, and it involved 28 secondary-school pupils from ten schools in France, Hungary, the …
Lecture at Scottish Association for Marine Science
I mentioned in my wrap-up note on the first Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC) that faculty at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), where the simulation was held in March 2022, seem to have found the experience just as inspiring as the participating students did. It was amazingly gratifying enough for me that my …
Bringing the Arctic to Ringsfield Primary School
It was lovely to visit Ringsfield Church of England Primary School in Ringsfield, Suffolk, today to speak to pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 about the Arctic, and about my experience of living and working in Nunavut in Arctic Canada. I arrived in the full gear I would wear if I were out …