But how to manage the competing claims on the Arctic’s 11.6 million square miles (30 million square kilometers), given the potential for the interests of eight separate nations to collide at the top of the Earth?

That question has been examined in depth over the past two years by Aspen Institute Commission on Arctic Climate Change, an 11-member panel of experts representing the diversity of stakeholders in the Arctic question — environmentalists, scientists, human rights advocates, tourism, those in the business of energy extraction. The effort was organized by the Aspen Institute’s energy and environment program, which aims to provide nonpartisan leadership and a neutral forum for constructive dialogue on complex policy issues, and was funded by the