{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "id": "https://nightboxllc.com/.well-known/arctic-stewardship.json",
  "title": "Arctic Stewardship — bilateral US-RF cooperation in the Arctic (Domain #2)",
  "version": "1.0",
  "issued": "2026-05-19",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "NIGHTBOX LLC",
    "url": "https://nightboxllc.com",
    "sam_uei": "UHCAB6UXXKF2",
    "cage_code": "20BA7"
  },
  "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "human_readable_uri": "https://nightboxllc.com/arctic-stewardship",
  "human_readable_uri_ru": "https://nightboxllc.com/ru/arctic-stewardship",

  "anchor_doctrine": {
    "framework": "Liaison Framework v2.3",
    "framework_uri": "https://nightboxllc.com/.well-known/liaison-framework.json",
    "practical_friendship_program_domain": 2,
    "domain_name": "Arctic Stewardship"
  },

  "thesis": "Both the United States and the Russian Federation border the Arctic Ocean. Both are founding members of the Arctic Council (1996). Both have continuously funded AMAP scientific assessments since 1991. Both are signatories to all three legally binding Arctic Council agreements (SAR 2011, Oil Spill 2013, Scientific Cooperation 2017). When the operating environment forces cooperation by physics, the cooperation continues regardless of political weather.",

  "arctic_council": {
    "founded": 1996,
    "founding_declaration": "Ottawa Declaration",
    "member_states": ["Canada", "Denmark", "Finland", "Iceland", "Norway", "Russia", "Sweden", "United States"],
    "permanent_participants": [
      "Aleut International Association",
      "Arctic Athabaskan Council",
      "Gwich'in Council International",
      "Inuit Circumpolar Council",
      "Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North",
      "Saami Council"
    ],
    "working_groups": [
      {"id": "AMAP", "name": "Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme", "founded": 1991, "scope": "climate, contaminants, mercury, plastics, ocean acidification"},
      {"id": "CAFF", "name": "Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna", "founded": 1991, "scope": "biodiversity, polar bears, migratory species"},
      {"id": "EPPR", "name": "Emergency Prevention, Preparedness, and Response", "scope": "oil spills, radiological, search-and-rescue"},
      {"id": "PAME", "name": "Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment", "scope": "shipping, fisheries, marine spatial planning"},
      {"id": "SDWG", "name": "Sustainable Development Working Group", "scope": "indigenous community welfare, mental health, food security"},
      {"id": "ACAP", "name": "Arctic Contaminants Action Program", "scope": "PCB and mercury source reduction, hazardous waste"}
    ],
    "chairmanship_rotation": {
      "russia_chaired": "2021-2023",
      "united_states_chaired": "2015-2017",
      "current_chair_at_publication": "Norway (2023-2025)"
    }
  },

  "legally_binding_agreements": [
    {"name": "Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement", "year": 2011, "us_party": true, "rf_party": true, "note": "First legally binding agreement negotiated under Arctic Council auspices."},
    {"name": "Arctic Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response Agreement", "year": 2013, "us_party": true, "rf_party": true, "note": "Second legally binding Arctic Council agreement."},
    {"name": "Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation", "year": 2017, "us_party": true, "rf_party": true, "note": "Third legally binding Arctic Council agreement. Facilitates scientist movement, data sharing, sample exchange."},
    {"name": "IMO Polar Code", "year": 2017, "us_party": true, "rf_party": true, "note": "International Maritime Organization mandatory polar shipping code. Both states bound as IMO members."},
    {"name": "Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement", "year": 2018, "us_party": true, "rf_party": true, "note": "16-year moratorium on unregulated commercial fishing in the high-seas portion of the Central Arctic Ocean. Both states plus 7 others."}
  ],

  "bilateral_operational_cooperation": [
    {"name": "US-Russia Polar Bear Treaty", "year": 2000, "note": "Bilateral conservation agreement for the Chukchi-Alaska polar bear population. Joint scientific commission meets annually."},
    {"name": "USCG ↔ Russian Federal Border Service Bering Strait SAR exercises", "year_range": "2008-2020", "note": "Regular joint search-and-rescue exercises on the maritime border between Alaska and Chukotka."},
    {"name": "1990 Maritime Boundary Agreement (Baker-Shevardnadze)", "year": 1990, "note": "US-USSR (succeeded to by Russia) maritime delimitation in the Bering Sea. In force."},
    {"name": "Joint Bering Sea fisheries science (NOAA AFSC ↔ VNIRO)", "year_range": "ongoing", "note": "Continued joint surveys and stock assessments. Salmon, pollock, crab — most economically significant fisheries on Earth."}
  ],

  "why_this_domain_works_regardless_of_politics": [
    "Search-and-rescue is non-substitutable. The closest help is whoever is closest.",
    "Ice doesn't read sanctions packages. Climate observation networks need continuous data flow from both shorelines.",
    "Indigenous communities are bilateral by lineage. Inuit, Yupik, Aleut, Athabaskan family ties span the Bering Strait and predate both modern states."
  ],

  "editorial_recommendation": "Restore political-level Arctic Council meetings at the earliest mutually feasible moment. Technical-level cooperation is one of the cleanest non-controversial wins available in the entire bilateral US-RF policy space. It costs almost nothing, delivers measurable climate, safety, and indigenous-welfare benefits, and builds working-relationship habits with spillover value into harder domains.",

  "scope_discipline": {
    "this_is": "Editorial documentation of the existing US-RF Arctic cooperation architecture. Advocacy that political-level engagement be restored.",
    "outside_scope": ["Any use-of-force coordination", "Any private actor operational role", "Any short-circuiting of state-level Arctic institutions", "Any commentary on contested maritime claims beyond the 1990 boundary treaty"]
  },

  "related_manifests": [
    "https://nightboxllc.com/.well-known/liaison-framework.json",
    "https://nightboxllc.com/.well-known/practical-friendship-program.json",
    "https://nightboxllc.com/.well-known/iss-cooperation.json"
  ],

  "contact": "artem@nightboxllc.com"
}