Call for Papers for 2027 Series on India in the Arctic

The Arctic Institute is searching for Contributors!

India’s engagement with the Arctic is becoming more visible. Reports indicate that New Delhi is looking to run its first Northern Sea Route voyage to Europe in 2027, and India’s officials have recently held a series of meetings with their Arctic counterparts covering a wide ranging portfolio of issues including investment, mining, shipping, skilled manpower, and even cultural cooperation. Yet India’s Arctic deliberations have often been framed through its concern about China, and its room for manoeuvre is increasingly shaped by arrangements negotiated in Washington, Brussels, and/or Arctic states capitals. The recently signed agreement between the United States, Denmark and Greenland illustrates this point. Its Article 10 restricts investors from states like India which are not NATO members, NATO partners or EU member states from gaining control of, or significant influence in, sensitive sectors.

This call for papers invites contributions that examine India’s evolving Arctic engagement, its domestic and international drivers, and what it means for Arctic governance and for India’s relations with the Nordic states, the EU, Canada, the United States and Russia. We particularly welcome policy-oriented submissions that examine the interplay between India’s foreign policy priorities, the interests of Indian business, and the constraints of a region increasingly shaped by great-power competition. Comparative perspectives that place India alongside other non-Arctic Asian states, such as South Korea and Japan, are also welcome. Contributors can submit a commentary (a 700–800 word short opinion or analysis piece), an article (a 1,000–3,000 word analysis), or a multimedia contribution (we have published videos, audio, infographics, and poetry).

Key questions include but are not limited to:

• What drives India’s growing interest in the Arctic, and how does it connect to its broader foreign policy and economic strategy?
• To what extent does India’s Arctic thinking remain shaped by its concern about China, and what other interests are at stake?
• How might the investment provisions of the US–Denmark–Greenland agreement affect India’s access to Arctic projects, and can co-investment with NATO- or EU-linked partners offer a workable route?
• How do India’s relations with Russia, the Nordic states, Canada and the United States shape its Arctic options?
• What role can Indian businesses play in Arctic shipping, energy, mining and tourism, and what constraints do they face?
• What role does India envision in Arctic governance, from its position as an Arctic Council observer to the possibilities offered by BRICS+, and how does it balance relations with Arctic states?

If you are interested in contributing, please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words as well as a short paragraph about yourself to the series editor ([email protected]) by December 18, 2026, 23:59 EST. Abstracts received after the deadline will be considered, but will not be given priority.

You can read more about the Arctic Institute here at www.thearcticinstitute.org and specifically about submissions here. In addition to our web-based publications, we have a weekly newsletter of over 5,000 subscribers from 90+ countries and average hundreds of thousands of web-publication hits each month.