 My name is Walter Rubrik. I'm a professor here at the Naval War College and director of the Arctic Studies Group and co-lead scholar of the Newport Arctic Scholars Initiative. It's the first initiative of its kind that brings together sailors and scholars from Arctic nations to conduct collaborative, multi-disciplinary research on security and defense-related issues. The sailors bring kind of the practical knowledge, the operational experience, the real-world experience that their navies are dealing with today and you pair that up with some of the brightest and best minds in the region and you get a pretty unique and strong force there. My name is Lars Sornes. I'm a former CNO of Norway. I'm co-leading this Newport Arctic Scholar Initiative. The Arctic is developing fast with the climate change and I say climate change and serenity issues in the Arctic is like ying and yang. So what's new in the Arctic? Well, the Arctic is opening up, establishing new frontier for nations to cope with. So if you look at from the Pacific, what does the Arctic mean for them? You can look at from the Russian side. They have a piece of it. You can look at from the U.S.-Canadian side. They have a third piece of it. Or you can look at from the Atlantic side, which is the blue, more high in order Arctic. So they all distinguish different regions, but no one has before taken whole Arctic approach to the problem in the Arctic. So that is what we're trying to do to see when you get new frontiers, the ice is diminishing, you open up for exploration. These frontiers may create security issues among those nations. So what we are going to study is what Arctic risks and opportunities as the Arctic opens. My name is Gary Vapishi. I'm a Strategic Analyst with Defence Research Development Canada, based in Ottawa, and I work with the Royal Canadian Navy. The objective of the Newport Arctic Sea Power Initiative is to enhance cooperation and deepen our knowledge of different strategic issues in the region, including awareness, readiness, as well as confidence-building measures in order to enhance cooperation and ensure a peaceful, stable and open Arctic. And so the objective is really to see how we can work together and to deepen our knowledge on these issues in order to inform our governments. The Arctic is changing and changing fast. There is a rapidly melting polar ice cap. There is the shortest trade route linking Asia, Europe and North America. We see an increased abundance and distribution of fish and minerals. Potentially one-third of the world's untapped hydrocarbons. And so these factors coupled with a new era of strategic competition among great powers brings new rise and new significance to the Arctic. And so it's important that our decision makers think about the Arctic as we think about our broader grand strategy. What's happening in the Arctic has a global impact. You can look at it from so many angles. And I'm so thrilled to have scholars and military professionals from all these countries coming together share their experience, knowledge, for the benefit of us all. That is really the key of success today.