Newsletter: Travelogue From "NATO in the North"

We have embarked on a field trip organized by Barents Press, an international network for journalists in the Barents region. 

We have already visited the Porsanger Battalion and the Norwegian Sami Parliament in Karasjok, Northern Norway. Now, we have set a course for the Finnish Sami Parliament and Finland's northernmost military camp, among others. 

We are here to learn and to gain insights into topics that impact lives and the news, not only locally, but internationally. Because what happens in the North is international geo- and security politics. 

On the road, we pick up exciting new stories and interviews for you to read at a later occasion. 

You can shorten the wait by reading about the U.S. Coast Guard and partnering federal agencies' plan to organize shipping activity along a designated corridor.

And that cooperation with Russia in the Arctic Council works, according to leaders of the council's working groups. 

Don't miss Holm's potent comment on the Northern Norway Regional Health Authority and sky-high executive wages: 

“When the health sector fails, the health authorities' contract with society at large also fails,” Holm writes. 

We cannot escape defense news, as NATO's new northern land command in Finland opens. And Iceland and Finland have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on defense cooperation. 

And read the latest scientist profile on doctoral student Lena Leimgruber at Umeå University in Sweden, who thinks literature and the arts provide an important perspective in the Arctic dialogue.

Read all this and more at High North News. Follow along for more news from the Arctic and our journey into one of NATO's newest member countries. 

Arctic greetings from Editor-in-Chief Trine Jonassen