The Arctic Coast Guard Forum (ACGF) is an organisation which unites the coast guards of eight Arctic states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. The ACGF's main task is "to foster safe, secure, and environmentally responsible maritime activity in the Arctic."The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, accessed May 27, 2022, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/. Since its establishment in 2015, the ACGF has been enabling the coast guards from each member state to cooperate towards common objectives.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "The Arctic Coast Guard Forum is preparing for the first operative exercise, the Arctic Guardian 2017," August 4, 2017, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/news/arctic-coast-guard-forum-preparing-first-operative-exercise-arctic-guardian-2017. The establishment of the ACGF is a response to the increasing levels of activities in the maritime domain in the Arctic, and with that associated need for coast guard services.Andreas Østhagen, "Coastguards in peril: a study of Arctic defence collaboration," Defence Studies 15, no. 2 (2015): 143, 2015, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2015.1035949.
+The Arctic Coast Guard Forum (ACGF)Established30 October 2015Member StatesCanada Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Norway
Russia
Sweden
United StatesWebsitehttps://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/
History As mentioned above, the level of maritime activity in the Arctic has been on the rise. Based on Andreas Østhagen, this trend is apparent in the number of vessels, which has been rising for the past 30 years.Andreas Østhagen, "Arctic Coast Guards: Managing New Challenges?," in Grey and White Hulls: An International Analysis of the Navy-Coastguard Nexus, eds. Ian Bowers and Swee Lean Collin Koh (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 137. Only in the period from 2013 to 2019, there was an increase of 25 percent in how many ships crossed the border of the Arctic Polar Code Area.The Arctic Council, "First Arctic Shipping Status Report from Pame Working Group Highlights Increase in Arctic Shipping Traffic," April 14, 2020, https://www.arctic-council.org/news/first-arctic-shipping-status-report-increase-shipping-traffic/. In the Arctic, an increase can be observed in multiple maritime areas, such as fisheries, transport of goods, as well as cruise ships.Østhagen, "Arctic Coast Guards: Managing New Challenges?," 137. This tendency, along with "an increased complexity of the maritime activities undertaken," put some pressure on coast guards, whose services such as "[s]earch and rescue (SAR), environmental protection (such as oil spill response) and aid to navigation" were much needed.Andreas Østhagen, "The Arctic Coast Guard Forum: Big Tasks, Small Solutions," in Maritime Security Challenges: Focus High North: Papers from the Kiel Conference 2016, eds. Sebastian Bruns and Adrian J. Neumann (Kiel: Institute for Security Policy Kiel University, 2016), 3, https://www.ispk.uni-kiel.de/en/publications_old/proceedings/KC16_Proceedings.pdf#page=7.
Prior to establishing the ACGF, the eight states had already committed to cooperate in two agreements – in a 2011 agreement related to search and rescue operations, and in a 2013 agreement on preparedness for oil spills. However, coast guard cooperation needed to be advanced even further for the coast guards to meet the requirements of the new environment. As a result, the ACGF was established on 30 October 2015.Andreas Østhagen, Coast Guards and Ocean Politics in the Arctic (Singapore: Palgrave Pivot, 2018), 66-7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0754-0_6. The establishment of the ACGF was inspired by the Atlantic and North Pacific Coast Guard Forums, which had already been in place.Rebecca Pincus, "Commentary: The Arctic Coast Guard Forum: A Welcome & Important Step," in Arctic Yearbook 2015, eds. Lassi Heininen, Heather Exner-Pirot, and Joel Plouffe (Akureyri: Northern Research Forum, 2015), 390, https://www.arcticyearbook.com. Despite the similarities that exist between the ACGF and the Arctic Council, the ACGF is an independent organisation.Ibid.
Goals The ACGF's goals can be divided into several areas. The overarching goals is cooperation. This encompasses cooperation between coast guards in the Arctic on a variety of maritime issues, but also cooperation between the ACGF and the Arctic Council. An example of cooperation is information sharing.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "About ACGF," accessed May 27, 2022, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/about-acgf.
The ACGF aims to foster cooperation on different areas related to the maritime domain. These include maritime environment, scientific research, safety on sea and responding to emergencies, local population, and Indigenous peoples.Ibid. Next to cooperation, another goal which can unite the diverse focus of the ACGF is the interest in sustainable development in the Arctic maritime domain.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "About ACGF."
Members Eight Arctic states are members of the ACGF, and they are identical to those of the Arctic Council. The members are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States. Some basic information about each member state is outlined in the table below.
+Member stateName of participating agencyHeadquartersCanadaCanadian Coast GuardOttawaDenmarkJoint Arctic CommandNuukFinlandFinnish Border GuardHelsinkiIcelandIcelandic Coast GuardReykjavikNorwayNorwegian Coast GuardSortland, Vesteraalen and Northern NorwayRussian FederationRussian Coast Guard of the Federal Security ServiceMoscowSwedenSwedish Coast GuardKarlskronaUnited StatesU.S. Coast GuardWashington D.C. (Self-made, with data from The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "Member states," accessed May 27, 2022, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/.)
Formal Structure The ACGF is divided into three main bodies: the ACGF Chair, the Secretariat, and the working groups. The chairmanship rotates among the eight member states every two years, and the chair country is identical to that of the Arctic Council (see Table). The chair country is responsible for the arrangement of meetings of the ACGF, which take place twice a year.Ibid. +Member statePeriod of chairmanshipRussian Federation2021-2023Iceland2019-2021Finland2017-2019United States2015-2017 (Self-made, with data from The Arctic Council, "Past Chairmanships," accessed May 28, 2022, https://www.arctic-council.org/about/previous-chairmanships/.)
Past Exercises Since its establishment, the focus of the ACGF has been on search and rescue operations.Østhagen, "The Arctic Coast Guard Forum: Big Tasks, Small Solutions," 4. Search and rescue capabilities are important in the environment of the Arctic along with the increasing levels of activity, as described in the "History" section. The emphasis on search and rescue operations is also apparent in the exercises the ACGF has so far organised. Besides the exercises described in this section, the ACGF has also conducted a simulator exercise in Finland in 2018.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "Arctic Coast Guard Forum’s Simulator Exercise in Turku, Finland," March 6, 2018, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/news/arctic-coast-guard-forums-simulator-exercise-turku-finland.
The Arctic Guardian 2017 The Arctic Guardian constitutes the first operative exercise of the ACGF. It took place between 5–9 September in Iceland with the aim to scrutinise the ability of the search and rescue units to work together as well as the communication between Maritime Rescue Command Centres. The scenario included a cruise ship in distress. The directly participating countries were Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and the United States. The exercise was observed by the three remaining member states, namely Finland, Sweden, and Russian Federation.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "The Arctic Coast Guard Forum is preparing"; The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "The first operative exercise of the Arctic Coast Guard Forum (ACGF) will be held 5th-9th September 2017," September 1, 2017, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/news/first-operative-exercise-arctic-coast-guard-forum-acgf-will-be-held-5th-9th-september-2017.
Polaris 2019 Like the Arctic Guardian, Polaris was a coast guard exercise, but in addition to search and rescue, it also focused on the preparations for mass rescue operations, rescuing nearly three hundred cruise ship passengers as part of this exercise. A part of this exercise was also for example training in situations on sea that include fire.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "The Arctic Coast Guard Week marks the end of the Finnish Chairmanship of the Arctic Coast Guard Forum," April 11, 2019, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/news/arctic-coast-guard-week-marks-end-finnish-chairmanship-arctic-coast-guard-forum. Just like in the previous live exercise, communication was also trained here. Polaris took place on 2 April 2019 in Finland, and this time, all the eight member states participated in the exercise.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "Live Exercise Polaris 2019," March 27, 2019, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/news/live-exercise-polaris-2019.
Other planned exercises After the Arctic Guardian in 2017 and Polaris in 2019, another exercise was planned for the Icelandic chairmanship and was supposed to take place in 2021.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "The Arctic Coast Guard Week." However, it is most likely that this exercise was not executed based on the lack of information on the ACGF's website.
The ACGF as an informal organisation On the ACGF's website, one of the adjectives used to describe the organisation is that it is informal.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, "About ACGF." The informality aspect of the organisation corresponds to a wider pattern in international politics, also outside the maritime domain. Christian Bueger argues that there has been a tendency to turn to "informal governance mechanisms" to deal with current issues on the world stage.Christian Bueger, "Experimental Governance: Can the Lessons of the CGPCS be transferred to other policy fields?," in The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS). Lessons learnt Compendium, ed. Thierry Tardy (Paris: EU Institute for Security Studies, 2014), 1, http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/Report_20_Piracy_off_the_coast_of_Somalia.pdf. An organisation can be categorised as informal when it does not have "explicit rules, standardized procedures and . . . standing secretariats."Ibid. The ACGF does not state any rules that need to be followed by the organisation or the member state, and in its statement of cooperation, it is written that the ACGF is not based on a treaty.The Arctic Council, "Arctic Council – Arctic Coast Guard Forum Statement of Cooperation," 2021, https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/bitstream/handle/11374/2575/SAOIS203_2021_RVK-Virtual1_10_Arctic-Council-ACGF-Statement-of-Cooperation-_Final-Version.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Besides its regular meetings, which however were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the chairmanship structure adopted from the Arctic Council, the ACGF does not seem to follow any standardised procedures.The Arctic Coast Guard Forum, accessed May 28, 2022, https://www.arcticcoastguardforum.com/. Finally, the ACGF has a secretariat, but there is no mention of the secretariat being permanent with a fixed location.Ibid. Therefore, not only does the ACGF self-identify as informal, but it also corresponds to the defining features of informality in organisations outlined by Bueger.