Renaissance humanism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) shows the correlations of ideal human body proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in his De Architectura.

"In his explicit turn back to an ancient model in search of knowledge and wisdom, Leonardo follows early humanist practice. What he finds in Vitruvius is a mathematical formula for the proportions of all parts of the human body, which results in its idealized representation as the true microcosmic measure of all things. [...]The perfection of this ideal human form corresponds visually to the early humanist belief in the unique central placement of human beings within the divine universal order and their consequent human grandeur and dignity, expressed in the philosopher Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), known as the manifesto of the Renaissance."

— Anne Hudson Jones

Renaissance humanism is a worldview centered on the nature and importance of humanity that emerged from the study of Classical antiquity.

Renaissance humanists sought to create a citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity, and thus capable of engaging in the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. Humanism, while set up by a small elite who had access to books and education, was intended as a cultural movement to influence all of society. It was a program to revive the cultural heritage, literary legacy, and moral philosophy of the Greco-Roman civilization.

It first began in Italy and then spread across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term humanist (Italian: umanista) referred to teachers and students of the humanities, known as the studia humanitatis, which included the study of Latin and Ancient Greek literatures, grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. It was not until the 19th century that this began to be called humanism instead of the original humanities, and later by the retronym Renaissance humanism to distinguish it from later humanist developments.

During the Renaissance period most humanists were Christians, so their concern was to "purify and renew Christianity", not to do away with it. Their vision was to return ad fontes ("to the pure sources") to the Gospels, the New Testament and the Church Fathers, bypassing the complexities of medieval Christian theology.

Definition

Medieval and Renaissance Italian writers portrayed by Giorgio Vasari in Six Tuscan Poets (1544). From left to right: Cristoforo Landino, Marsilio Ficino, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, and Guido Cavalcanti.

Very broadly, the project of the Italian Renaissance humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the studia humanitatis: the study of the humanities, "a curriculum focusing on language skills." This project sought to recover the culture of ancient Greece and Rome through its literature and philosophy and to use this classical revival to imbue the ruling classes with the moral attitudes of said ancients—a project James Hankins calls one of "virtue politics." But what this studia humanitatis actually constituted is a subject of much debate. According to one scholar of the movement,

Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia humanitatis excluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group.

However, in investigating this definition in his article "The changing concept of the studia humanitatis in the early Renaissance," Benjamin G. Kohl provides an account of the various meanings the term took on over the course of the period.

• Around the middle of the fourteenth century, when the term first came into use among Italian literati, it was used in reference to a very specific text: as praise of the cultural and moral attitudes expressed in Cicero's Pro Archia poeta (62 BCE).
• Tuscan humanist Coluccio Salutati popularized the term in the 1370s, using the phrase to refer to culture and learning as a guide to moral life, with a focus on rhetoric and oration. Over the years, he came to use it specifically in literary praise of his contemporaries, but later viewed the studia humanitatis as a means of editing and restoring ancient texts and even understanding scripture and other divine literature.
• But it was not until the beginning of the quattrocento (15th century) that the studia humanitatis began to be associated with particular academic disciplines, when Pier Paolo Vergerio, in his De ingenuis moribus, stressed the importance of rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy as a means of moral improvement.
• By the middle of the century, the term was adopted more formally, as it started to be used in Bologna and Padua in reference to university courses that taught these disciplines as well as Latin poetry, before then spreading northward throughout Italy.
• But the first instance of it as encompassing grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy all together only came when Tommaso Parentucelli wrote to Cosimo de' Medici with recommendations regarding his library collection, saying, "de studiis autem humanitatis quantum ad grammaticam, rhetoricam, historicam et poeticam spectat ac moralem" ("concerning studies of the humanities, insofar as they [consist of] grammar, rhetoric, history and poetry, and also ethics").

And so, the term studia humanitatis took on a variety of meanings over the centuries, being used differently by humanists across the various Italian city-states as one definition got adopted and spread across the country. Still, it has referred consistently to a mode of learning—formal or not—that results in one's moral edification.

Under the influence and inspiration of the classics, Renaissance humanists developed a new rhetoric and new learning. Some scholars also argue that humanism articulated new moral and civic perspectives, and values offering guidance in life to all citizens. Renaissance humanism was a response to what came to be depicted by later whig historians as the "narrow pedantry" associated with medieval scholasticism.

History

In the last years of the 13th century and in the first decades of the 14th century, the cultural climate was changing in some European regions. The rediscovery, study, and renewed interest in authors who had been forgotten, and in the classical world that they represented, inspired a flourishing return to linguistic, stylistic and literary models of antiquity. There emerged a consciousness of the need for a cultural renewal, which sometimes also meant a detachment from contemporary culture. Manuscripts and inscriptions were in high demand and graphic models were also imitated. This "return to the ancients" was the main component of so-called "pre-humanism", which developed particularly in Tuscany, in the Veneto region, and at the papal court of Avignon, through the activity of figures such as Lovato Lovati and Albertino Mussato in Padua, Landolfo Colonna in Avignon, Ferreto de' Ferreti in Vicenza, Convenevole from Prato in Tuscany and then in Avignon, and many others.

By the 14th century some of the first humanists were great collectors of antique manuscripts, including Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Coluccio Salutati, and Poggio Bracciolini. Of the four, Petrarch was dubbed the "Father of Humanism," as he was the one who first encouraged the study of pagan civilizations and the teaching of classical virtues as a means of preserving Christianity. He also had a library, of which many manuscripts did not survive. Many worked for the Catholic Church and were in holy orders, like Petrarch, while others were lawyers and chancellors of Italian cities, and thus had access to book copying workshops, such as Petrarch's disciple Salutati, the Chancellor of Florence.

In Italy, the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th century, many of the upper classes had received humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditional scholastic ones. Some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion, a convert to the Catholic Church from Greek Orthodoxy, who was considered for the papacy, and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There were several 15th-century and early 16th-century humanist Popes one of whom, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), was a prolific author and wrote a treatise on The Education of Boys. These subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement which they inspired is shown as humanism.

The migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the Crusader sacking of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 was a very welcome addition to the Latin texts scholars like Petrarch had found in monastic libraries for the revival of Greek literature and science via their greater familiarity with ancient Greek works. They included Gemistus Pletho, George of Trebizond, Theodorus Gaza, and John Argyropoulos.

There were important centres of Renaissance humanism in Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Genoa, Livorno, Mantua, Padua, Pisa, Naples, Rome, Siena, Venice, Vicenza, and Urbino.

Italian humanism spread to Spain, with Francisco de Vitoria becoming its first great exponent. He founded the School of Salamanca, of which Antonio de Nebrija became one of its main members. A circle of humanists also formed around King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor Charles I and V, with names like Alfonso and Juan de Valdés, Juan Luis Vives and Luisa Sigea. Charles appointed another noted humanist, Mercurino di Gattinara, his chancellor. The Valdés brothers, Gattinara and Antonio de Guevara were proponents of working towards the restoration of a Christian, universal Roman Empire, an idea originally inspired by Dante Alighieri in his Monarchia. Spain's participation in the Italian Wars and the Ottoman-Habsburg conflicts also gave birth to a militant strain of humanism known as las armas y las letras, first codified in Charles' court by Baldassare Castiglione.

Humanism also spread northward to France, Germany, the Low Countries, Poland-Lithuania, Hungary and England with the adoption of large-scale printing after 1500, and it became associated with the Reformation. In France, pre-eminent humanist Guillaume Budé (1467–1540) applied the philological methods of Italian humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on Justinian's Code. Budé was a royal absolutist (and not a republican like the early Italian umanisti) who was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for Francis I and helping to found the Collège des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collège de France). Meanwhile, Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of Francis I, was a poet, novelist, and religious mystic who gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard, and François Rabelais.

Paganism and Christianity in the Renaissance

Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X, and there was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures. Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before and after the Reformation, which was greatly influenced by the work of non-Italian, Northern European figures such as Erasmus, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, William Grocyn, and Swedish Catholic Archbishop in exile Olaus Magnus.

Description

The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy describes the rationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact on Renaissance scholars:

Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature.

In 1417, for example, Poggio Bracciolini discovered the manuscript of Lucretius, De rerum natura, which had been lost for centuries and which contained an explanation of Epicurean doctrine, though at the time this was not commented on much by Renaissance scholars, who confined themselves to remarks about Lucretius's grammar and syntax.

Only in 1564 did French commentator Denys Lambin (1519–72) announce in the preface to the work that "he regarded Lucretius's Epicurean ideas as 'fanciful, absurd, and opposed to Christianity'." Lambin's preface remained standard until the nineteenth century. Epicurus's unacceptable doctrine that pleasure was the highest good "ensured the unpopularity of his philosophy". Lorenzo Valla, however, puts a defense of epicureanism in the mouth of one of the interlocutors of one of his dialogues.

Epicureanism

Charles Trinkhaus regards Valla's "epicureanism" as a ploy, not seriously meant by Valla, but designed to refute Stoicism, which he regarded together with epicureanism as equally inferior to Christianity. Valla's defense, or adaptation, of Epicureanism was later taken up in The Epicurean by Erasmus, the "Prince of humanists:"

If people who live agreeably are Epicureans, none are more truly Epicurean than the righteous and godly. And if it is names that bother us, no one better deserves the name of Epicurean than the revered founder and head of the Christian philosophy Christ, for in Greek epikouros means "helper". He alone, when the law of Nature was all but blotted out by sins, when the law of Moses incited to lists rather than cured them, when Satan ruled in the world unchallenged, brought timely aid to perishing humanity. Completely mistaken, therefore, are those who talk in their foolish fashion about Christ's having been sad and gloomy in character and calling upon us to follow a dismal mode of life. On the contrary, he alone shows the most enjoyable life of all and the one most full of true pleasure.

This passage exemplifies the way in which the humanists saw pagan classical works, such as the philosophy of Epicurus, as being in harmony with their interpretation of Christianity.

Neo-Platonism

Renaissance Neo-Platonists such as Marsilio Ficino (whose translations of Plato's works into Latin were still used into the 19th century) attempted to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, according to the suggestions of early Church Fathers Lactantius and Saint Augustine. In this spirit, Pico della Mirandola attempted to construct a syncretism of religions and philosophies with Christianity, but his work did not win favor with the church authorities, who rejected it because of his views on magic.

Evolution and reception

The historian of the Renaissance Sir John Hale cautions against too direct a linkage between Renaissance humanism and modern uses of the term humanism: "Renaissance humanism must be kept free from any hint of either 'humanitarianism' or 'humanism' in its modern sense of rational, non-religious approach to life ... the word 'humanism' will mislead ... if it is seen in opposition to a Christianity its students in the main wished to supplement, not contradict, through their patient excavation of the sources of ancient God-inspired wisdom."

Individual freedom

Historian Steven Kreis expresses a widespread view (derived from the 19th-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt), when he writes that:

The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with the diverse customs of the East, and gradually permitted expression in matters of taste and dress. The writings of Dante, and particularly the doctrines of Petrarch and humanists like Machiavelli, emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom and individual expression. In the essays of Montaigne the individualistic view of life received perhaps the most persuasive and eloquent statement in the history of literature and philosophy.

Two noteworthy trends in some Renaissance humanists were Renaissance Neo-Platonism and Hermeticism, which through the works of figures like Nicholas of Kues, Giordano Bruno, Cornelius Agrippa, Campanella and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola sometimes came close to constituting a new religion itself. Of these two, Hermeticism has had great continuing influence in Western thought, while the former mostly dissipated as an intellectual trend, leading to movements in Western esotericism such as Theosophy and New Age thinking. The "Yates thesis" of Frances Yates holds that before falling out of favour, esoteric Renaissance thought introduced several concepts that were useful for the development of scientific method, though this remains a matter of controversy.

Sixteenth century and beyond

Though humanists continued to use their scholarship in the service of the church into the middle of the sixteenth century and beyond, the sharply confrontational religious atmosphere following the Reformation resulted in the Counter-Reformation that sought to silence challenges to Catholic theology, with similar efforts among the Protestant denominations. Some humanists, even moderate Catholics such as Erasmus, risked being declared heretics for their perceived criticism of the institutional church.

A number of humanists joined the Reformation movement and took over leadership functions, for example, Philipp Melanchthon, Ulrich Zwingli, Henry VIII, John Calvin, and William Tyndale. Others, like Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, were favorable to it although they remained Catholic.

With the Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent (1545–1563), positions hardened and a strict Catholic orthodoxy based on scholastic philosophy was imposed. However the education systems developed by Jesuits ran on humanist lines.

Historiography

Baron thesis

Hans Baron (1900–1988) was the inventor of the now ubiquitous term "civic humanism." First coined in the 1920s and based largely on his studies of Leonardo Bruni, Baron's "thesis" proposed the existence of a central strain of humanism, particularly in Florence and Venice, dedicated to republicanism.

As argued in his chef-d'œuvre, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny, the German historian thought that civic humanism originated in around 1402, after the great struggles between Florence and Visconti-led Milan in the 1390s. He considered Petrarch's humanism to be a rhetorical, superficial project, and viewed this new strand to be one that abandoned the feudal and supposedly "otherworldly" (i.e., divine) ideology of the Middle Ages in favour of putting the republican state and its freedom at the forefront of the "civic humanist" project. Already controversial at the time of The Crisis' publication, the "Baron Thesis" has been met with even more criticism over the years.

Even in the 1960s, historians Philip Jones and Peter Herde found Baron's praise of "republican" humanists naive, arguing that republics were far less liberty-driven than Baron had believed, and were practically as undemocratic as monarchies. James Hankins adds that the disparity in political values between the humanists employed by oligarchies and those employed by princes was not particularly notable, as all of Baron's civic ideals were exemplified by humanists serving various types of government. In so arguing, he asserts that a "political reform program is central to the humanist movement founded by Petrarch. But it is not a 'republican' project in Baron's sense of republic; it is not an ideological product associated with a particular regime type."

Garin and Kristeller

Two renowned Renaissance scholars, Eugenio Garin and Paul Oskar Kristeller collaborated with one another throughout their careers. But while the two historians were on good terms, they fundamentally disagreed on the nature of Renaissance humanism.

• Kristeller affirmed that Renaissance humanism used to be viewed just as a project of Classical revival, one that led to great increase in Classical scholarship. But he argued that this theory "fails to explain the ideal of eloquence persistently set forth in the writings of the humanists," asserting that "their classical learning was incidental to" their being "professional rhetoricians." Similarly, he considered their influence on philosophy and particular figures' philosophical output to be incidental to their humanism, viewing grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and ethics to be the humanists' main concerns.
• Garin, on the other hand, viewed philosophy itself as being ever-evolving, each form of philosophy being inextricable from the practices of the thinkers of its period. He thus considered the Italian humanists' break from Scholasticism and newfound freedom to be perfectly in line with this broader sense of philosophy.

During the period in which they argued over these differing views, there was a broader cultural conversation happening regarding Humanism: one revolving around Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger.

• In 1946, Sartre published a work called "L'existentialisme est un humanisme," in which he outlined his conception of existentialism as revolving around the belief that "existence comes before essence"; that man "first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards," making himself and giving himself purpose.
• Heidegger, in a response to this work of Sartre's, declared: "For this is humanism: meditating and caring, that human beings be human and not inhumane, "inhuman", that is, outside their essence." He also discussed a decline in the concept of humanism, pronouncing that it had been dominated by metaphysics and essentially discounting it as philosophy. He also explicitly criticized Italian Renaissance humanism in the letter.

While this discourse was taking place outside the realm of Renaissance Studies (for more on the evolution of the term "humanism," see Humanism), this background debate was not irrelevant to Kristeller and Garin's ongoing disagreement. Kristeller—who had at one point studied under Heidegger—also discounted (Renaissance) humanism as philosophy, and Garin's Der italienische Humanismus was published alongside Heidegger's response to Sartre—a move that Rubini describes as an attempt "to stage a pre-emptive confrontation between historical humanism and philosophical neo-humanisms."  Garin also conceived of the Renaissance humanists as occupying the same kind of "characteristic angst the existentialists attributed to men who had suddenly become conscious of their radical freedom," further weaving philosophy with Renaissance humanism.

Hankins summarizes the Kristeller v. Garin debate as:

• Kristeller conceives of professional philosophers as being very formal and method-focused. Renaissance humanists, on the other hand, he viewed to be professional rhetoricians who, using their classically-inspired paideia or institutio, did improve fields such as philosophy, but without the practice of philosophy being their main goal or function.
• Garin, instead, wanted his "humanist-philosophers to be organic intellectuals," not constituting a rigid school of thought, but having a shared outlook on life and education that broke with the medieval traditions that came before them.

I. R. Grigulevich

According to Russian historian and Stalinist assassin Iosif Grigulevich two characteristic traits of late Renaissance humanism were "its revolt against abstract, Aristotelian modes of thought and its concern with the problems of war, poverty, and social injustice."

Humanitarian crisis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_crisis 

Humanitarian crisis in Bengal

A humanitarian crisis (or sometimes humanitarian disaster) is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.

Each humanitarian crisis is caused by different factors and as a result, each different humanitarian crisis requires a unique response targeted towards the specific sectors affected. This can result in either short-term or long-term damage. Humanitarian crises can either be natural disasters, human-made disasters or complex emergencies. In such cases, complex emergencies occur as a result of several factors or events that prevent a large group of people from accessing their fundamental needs, such as food, clean water or safe shelter.

Common causes of humanitarian crises are wars, epidemics, famine, natural disasters, energy crises and other major emergencies. If a crisis causes large movements of people it could also become a refugee crisis. For these reasons, humanitarian crises are often interconnected and complex and several national and international agencies play roles in the repercussions of the incidences.

Categories

There is no simple categorization of humanitarian crises. Different communities and agencies tend to have definitions related to the concrete situations they face. A local fire service will tend to focus on issues such as flooding and weather induced crises. Medical and health related organizations are naturally focused on sudden crises to the health of a community.

Humanitarian crisis may arise from both natural and human-made conflicts and disasters. Humanitarian crisis from natural disasters include tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, floods, droughts, and wildfires that may result in disruption through damage to property, physical injury and death, psychological distress, displacement of individuals and families, and prolonged disruption in normal daily activities. On the other hand, crisis from manmade disasters such as wars, social unrest, protests, conflicts, and terrorist attacks have a broad range of impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of the individuals affected.

An ongoing or lingering pandemic may amount to a humanitarian crisis, especially where there are increasing levels of virulence, or rates of infection as in the case of AIDS, bird flu or tuberculosis. Major health-related problems such as cancer, global warming typically require an accentuated or punctuated mass-event to justify a label of "crisis" or "disaster".

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) lists categories which include different types of natural disasters, technological disasters (i.e. hazardous material spills, Chernobyl-type nuclear accidents, chemical explosions) and long-term human-made disasters related to "civil strife, civil war and international war". Internationally, the humanitarian response sector has tended to distinguish between natural disasters and complex emergencies which are related to armed conflict and wars.

Impacts

Women's social status in humanitarian crises

Female refugees sitting on the ground in Pakistan.

Socially, women and children (mostly girls) receive a significantly decreased amount of attention in response to humanitarian crises. Women and children make up 3 quarters of refugees or displaced persons at risk post-crisis. A quarter of this population is of reproduction age and a fifth of this population is likely to be pregnant. In times of emergency and such crises, deaths associated with pregnancy, reproductive health, sexual violence and sexual exploitation increase drastically especially amongst females. During such emergencies, women lose access to family planning services, prenatal care, postpartum care and other health services. The heightened risk of female health and safety makes them vulnerable to disease, violence and death.

Non-profit organizations such as the Women's Refugee Commission deal with aiding particularly women suffering from various types of humanitarian crises. According to the Women's Refugee Commission, during the first hours of a humanitarian crisis, women and young children are at most risk. During such an event, agencies and organizations approach matters variably. However, the top critical requirements within hours and months of the crises include: keeping the refugees and internally displaced persons away from danger, allowing access to fundamental needs such as food and healthcare, identification information, preventing sexual violence and others.

Socio-economic realities of humanitarian crises

Economic issues can lead to humanitarian crises or humanitarian crises can lead to economic downfalls. If it occurs after a humanitarian crisis affects a nation, it is imperative to return the livelihoods in the economic settings of the nation. One of the critical needs on the Women's Refugee Commission's list is providing education and economic opportunities in order to maintain the economic qualities of the region. It is done by using the skills of the displaced persons or refugees involved to provide them with opportunities to gain income.

If it occurs as a cause of humanitarian crisis, the society would have been in a state of civil insecurity and economic shortfalls, which could cause the government to collapse. This can also result from food insecurity, famines, corruptions and various other issues. Direct effects of this situation include human rights violations, violence and mass murders.

The El Niño weather pattern is expected to exacerbate hunger, displacement, and health risks globally. Governments and organizations like the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are focusing on anticipatory action and early response to mitigate the effects of climate-induced damage.

Environmental and ecological impacts

In the cases of humanitarian crises, especially natural disasters such as tornadoes, tsunamis and earthquakes, these incidences leave environmental and ecological impacts on the regions affected. The aftermaths of natural disasters can lead to a significant decrease in natural resources while making the region prone to future issues. For example, if a forest fire occurs in a large region, the area may be susceptible to air pollution, dust clouds, release of carcinogenic gases and others. Forest ecological wildlife, for example, is severely impacted by such events. In the cases of water natural disasters such as floods and tsunamis, extensive damage due to the water is prevalent. Fish, corals and other ocean life is impacted, which further impacts the livelihoods of fishermen.

According to the World Bank data, there is a worrying water scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa. The Stockholm International Water Institute emphasizes the need for urgent action in water policy, and suggests decentralizing decision-making to better manage the crisis.

Mental health impacts

Mental health impacts can cause additional concerns for populations affected by humanitarian crises. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in five individuals in a disaster-impacted population may already suffer from a mental health disorder that could then be exacerbated by the disaster context. Mental health disorders included in this estimate range from mild anxiety and/or depression to severe and persistent conditions like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Acute mental health impacts

The stress of a humanitarian crisis can cause acute, or short-term, anxiety in the population of people affected. Humanitarian crises often displace people from their homes and cut off their access to resources, which affects their ability to meet their basic needs and creates significant anxiety. This acute anxiety may impact the population's capacity to care for themselves via the resources provided by humanitarian aid groups in the short-term. Acute mental health impacts can also hinder a population's recovery capacity in rebuilding after a crisis. Acute stress can exacerbate pre-existing conditions for individuals who already suffer from mental health disorders, making serious conditions like depression or schizophrenia more difficult to live with.

Chronic mental health impacts

If left untreated, acute mental health impacts from humanitarian crises can become chronic conditions. Large studies estimate that anywhere between 9 and 40% of refugee populations suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by the crisis that led to their refugee status. These studies also showed a significant proportion of crisis-affected populations (between 5 and 30%) experiencing depression. Though a few large studies have been conducted, research gaps exist in investigating chronic mental health impacts of humanitarian crises, which is why these estimates have so much variation. PTSD along with moderate to severe depression and anxiety can be life-long disorders without adequate and prompt treatment.

Responses

The WHO and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) recommend that mental health care should be an integral part of emergency response during a humanitarian crisis. The type of mental health care provided can range and vary based on the context and resources but can include mental health first aid on the front lines, community support groups, and routine clinical mental health care. The WHO also recommends that countries enhance their mental healthcare systems outside of the context of a humanitarian crisis so that individuals affected by crises can have access to the care they need once the emergency response is over. A 2020 Cochrane review of psychological and social interventions for the prevention of mental disorders for individuals living in areas affected by humanitarian crisis found the need for better studies to determine the impact of interventions following a review of current studies. Research states that mental health is often neglected by first responders. Disaster can have lasting psychological impacts on those affected. When individuals are supported in processing their emotional experiences to the disaster this leads to increases in resilience, increases in the capacity to help others through crises, and increases in community engagement. When processing of emotional experiences is done in a collective manner, this leads to greater solidarity following disaster. As such, emotional experiences have an inherent adaptiveness within them, however the opportunity for these to be reflected on and processed is necessary for this growth to occur.

Sustainable solutions

British humanitarian services bringing aid to a Sierra Leone village recovering from war.

There is no singular solution to any one humanitarian crisis. Often, the primary cause of a humanitarian crisis is intertwined with several other factors. Further, one repercussion can lead to another which may lead to another. For instance, in the case of a flood, fish and ocean life is impacted, an environmental and ecological impact. This can further impact humans the source of income for fishermen, an economical impact. This causes the residents of this particular area to be stripped from their source of food and their culture of consuming sea fish. This can lead to women and children being forced to work in dangerous conditions to gain income and food, a social impact. Evidently, one crisis can have many impacts that are interconnected with one another and there is no single solution. The Feinstein International Center at Tufts University works to understand and find solutions to the intersection of various factors that contribute to humanitarian crisis.

Preparing for humanitarian crises

Disaster preparedness is critical to building both national and international capacity to prevent, respond to, and recover from humanitarian emergencies. Disaster preparedness activities can be categorized into material preparedness (building to code, avoiding building in hazardous areas, strengthening homes, preparing emergency kits, etc.) and into behavioral preparedness (training, early warning, disaster insurance, etc.). The international community possesses five key to key entities for guidance programming, research, and funding for disaster preparedness capacity-building:

• United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction: The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction implements the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The UNISDR, led by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, serves, “…as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among disaster reduction activities". A component of UNISDR work is implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: The IFRC operates around the globe and across all phases of the humanitarian programme cycle, helping affected nations by working with member National Societies and the international community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from “…natural and man-made disasters in non-conflict situations."
• Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Archived 14 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine: OCHA is a United Nations office, “…responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies." OCHA's leader operates as both the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and as the Emergency Relief Coordinator, advocating for increased awareness of, preparedness for, and response to humanitarian emergencies worldwide. As the Emergency Relief Coordinator, the OCHA lead also chairs the Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
• Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC): The IASC provides a forum for both UN-affiliated and non-UN-affiliated organizations to coordinate action regarding humanitarian policies, advocacy, and response evaluation and improvement. In 2005, the IASC released its Transformative Agenda with 10 protocols to, “…improve the effectiveness of humanitarian response through greater predictability, accountability, responsibility and partnership". Protocol 8: “Common Framework for Preparedness” and Protocol 9: ”Emergency Response Preparedness” provide guidance countries and humanitarians can implement for risk assessment and preparedness planning. Additionally, IASC also oversees global humanitarian clusters as a part of the Cluster Approach.
• Global Clusters: To aid coordination during the humanitarian programme cycle, the UN established the Cluster Approach. Clusters are groups of humanitarian organizations with explicit responsibilities for coordinating action within each humanitarian sector. Preparedness is fundamental to the Cluster Approach, with leaders within each global cluster working to build international capacity by developing standards, setting policy, and sharing leading practices for their sector before a humanitarian emergency occurs.

In addition to these five disaster preparedness entities, there is a multiplicity of government donor agencies that fund disaster preparedness activities, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and others. Additionally, there are many philanthropies that support disaster preparedness, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Humanitarian Crisis Management

NGOs and the management of human-made crises

Many actors are involved in the strategic management of humanitarian crises and emergencies. The United Nations (UN) serves as the primary international actor in humanitarian crisis oversight but has extended responsibilities and management roles to improve the efficiency of crisis responses. With the development of a cluster system, the UN's official organs have incorporated international organizations (IOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) into the coordination of crisis management.

By expanding the responsibility for humanitarian crises beyond the UN's singular authority, the number of actors involved in the coordination of the system has simultaneously increased. Requiring further attention to efficient cooperation in-between actors. Specifically, human-made crises, which differ from natural disasters in their fundamental origin of imposing humanitarian threats, create distinct challenges to appropriate crisis responses because of the new essence of conflicts. Today, conflicts are more frequently domestically fought rather than across national borders. Such development of crises has changed the ways humans are affected by conflict and asks for new response strategies to meet the needs of the people at risk. Thus, the multiple actors involved in human-made humanitarian crises, are faced with a challenging environment to establish efficient management and cooperation over the situation.

INGOs and NGOs are part of the clustered system of responsible actors in the management of humanitarian crises. They share organizational characteristics of a detachment from state association and a position of objectivity  but differ in their level of operation. INGOs operate internationally, and NGOs pertain to a domestic level of activity. Non-governmental organizations overall have a non-profit structure, which means that they are solely providing services for the good of the population at risk and in need of assistance, without expectations of return benefits. Which allows them to focus on solidarity efforts in serving human needs and protecting human rights. The organizations are thus dependent on volunteers' investment in the shared vision of the entity. Their work also includes preventive efforts of serving as experts to deliver knowledge on management practices to the other actors. Additionally, by centering their work around a shared vision of establishing long-term peace through coordinated strategies of reconciliation and conflict assistance, they seek to efficiently fulfill their role in the humanitarian crisis management cluster.

The 2017 humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is an example that recognizes the unique position NGOs have and the responsibilities they serve in the international community. The crisis was acknowledged internationally when the ethnic group of the Rohingya had suffered from violent discrimination and denial of human rights for an extensive period. The Myanmar government prevented aid from both the UN and neighboring countries to support the ongoing crisis. Instead, the Indonesian government established a strategic cluster of cooperation between local NGOs in Indonesia and Myanmar. The alliance received the name of The Indonesian Humanitarian Alliance (AKIM) and provided relief to the exposed Rohingya people by getting around the barriers put in place by the Myanmar government. Several international NGOs were also involved in Myanmar to deliver appropriate relief. Their assistance allowed limited contact with the national government in Myanmar yet reached beneficial agreements with other local authorities, as well as established communication and cooperation with local NGOs and UN actors. However, because of the large number of actors involved in the crisis, the organizations faced challenges in the coordination between actors to provide efficient and non-coinciding crisis management.

In addition to the coordination aspect and its significance in humanitarian crisis management provided by NGOs, there is another potential strategy highlighting efficient communication to implement sufficient responses. NGOs often have to work with a diverse set of actors which may present challenges to efficient cooperation if expectations and goals divide across partnerships. To overcome obstacles within diverse interactions, NGOs may utilize three strategic environments of operation to establish efficient communication between parties. First, the “internal workplace” considers the diverse environment closely working with the NGOs, consisting of the organization's employees and volunteers from the crisis exposed area. Second, the “inter-organizational forum” addresses the communication line between the multiple NGOs assisting in the specific crisis, including the local authorities and the appropriate reporting to UN agencies. Last, “community relations” recognizes the multicultural dimension of the communication between NGO employees and the individuals at risk of the crisis. The communication and coordination between the various actors in humanitarian crises are essential components for ensuring security, limiting the conflict, and overall delivering efficient crisis management.

Besides the attention to efficient coordination of actors and the recognition of diverse environments of communication, NGOs can also adopt strategic thinking in their work with humanitarian crises. What identifies the approach of strategic thinking is an overarching awareness of the environment of the particular crisis and the context of the organization assisting. With a broader understanding of the needs of the people at risk, and what the organization wishes to accomplice with its work, there is a greater chance for a successful outcome for both parties. Strategic thinking, coordination of actors, and efficient communication in diverse environments are all potential strategies that NGOs can use on both international and local levels to address humanitarian crises. As each organization and crisis is different, there is no such thing as a perfect strategy to manage humanitarian crises across the board. Instead, it is suggested to use methods such as strategic thinking, coordination, and communication to develop a response that is suitable for the specific situation and allows for successful management of serving human needs and protecting human rights.

Northeast Passage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Passage

The Northeast Passage (blue) and an alternative route through the Suez Canal (red)

The Northeast Passage (abbreviated as NEP; Russian: Северо-Восточный проход, romanized: Severo-Vostochnyy prokhod, Norwegian: Nordøstpassasjen) is the shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia. The western route through the islands of Canada is accordingly called the Northwest Passage (NWP).

The NEP traverses (from west to east) the Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, and Chukchi Sea, and it includes the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The Northern Sea Route is a portion of the NEP. It is defined in Russian law and does not include the Barents Sea and therefore does not reach the Atlantic Ocean. However, since the NSR has a significant overlap over the majority of the NEP, the NSR term is often used to refer to the entirety of the Northeast Passage. This practice injects confusion in understanding the specifics of both navigational procedures and jurisdiction.

The Northeast Passage is one of several Arctic maritime routes, the others being the Northwest Passage (going through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the coast of Alaska) and the Transpolar Route (going across the North Pole).

The first confirmed complete passage, from west to east, was made by the Finland-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, with the Swedish ship Vega 1878–79 backed by the royal funding of king Oscar II of Sweden. Nordenskiöld was forced to winter just a few days' sailing distance from the Bering Strait, due to pack ice.

History

11th to 17th centuries

See also: Early modern Dutch cartography and geography, Abraham Ortelius, Petrus Plancius, and Willem Barentsz

First edition of the important map of Asia by Abraham Ortelius (1572). Ortelius marks a vast network of waterways across East Asia, advocating his belief that a shipping route existed through China to the Northern Sea and thence, by way of the Northeast Passage, to Europe.

The motivation to navigate the Northeast passage was initially economic. In Russia, the idea of a possible seaway connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans was first proposed by the diplomat Gerasimov in 1525. However, Russian settlers and traders on the coast of the White Sea, the Pomors, had been exploring parts of the route as early as the 11th century. Grigory Istoma wrote about his 1496 voyage along the passage, which was later published by Sigismund von Herberstein and influenced the planning of future expeditions.

During a sail across the Barents Sea in search of the Northeast Passage in 1553, English explorer Hugh Willoughby thought he saw islands to the north, and islands called Willoughby's Land were shown on maps published by Plancius and Mercator in the 1590s, and they continued to appear on maps by Jan Janssonius and Willem Blaeu into the 1640s.

By the 17th century, traders had established a continuous sea route from Arkhangelsk to the Yamal Peninsula, where they portaged to the Gulf of Ob. This route, known as the Mangazeya seaway, after its eastern terminus, the trade depot of Mangazeya, was an early precursor to the Northern Sea Route.

East of the Yamal, the route north of the Taimyr Peninsula proved impossible or impractical. East of the Taimyr, from the 1630s, Russians began to sail the Arctic coast from the mouth of the Lena River to a point beyond the mouth of the Kolyma River. Both Vitus Bering (in 1728) and James Cook (in 1778) entered the Bering Strait from the south and sailed some distance northwest, but from 1648 (Semyon Dezhnev) to 1879 (Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld) no one is recorded as having sailed eastward between the Kolyma and Bering Strait.

Map drawn in 1601 by Theodore de Bry to describe the ill-fated third voyage of the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz in search of the Northeast Passage

The western parts of the passage were explored by northern European countries such as England, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, looking for an alternative seaway to China and India; had it proved practicable, such a seaway would have had enormous economic and military importance. Although these expeditions failed, new coasts and islands were discovered. The most notable was the 1596 expedition led by Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz, who discovered Spitsbergen and Bear Island, and rounded the north end of Novaya Zemlya.

Fearing English and Dutch penetration into Siberia, Russia closed the Mangazeya seaway in 1619. Pomor activity in Northern Asia declined and most Arctic exploration in the 17th century was carried out by Siberian Cossacks, sailing from one river mouth to another in their Arctic-worthy kochs. In 1648, the most famous of these expeditions, led by Fedot Alekseev and Semyon Dezhnev, sailed east from the mouth of the Kolyma River to the Pacific Ocean, and rounded the Chukchi Peninsula, thus proving that no land connection existed between Asia and North America.

18th and 19th centuries

Eighty years after Dezhnev, in 1728, another Russian explorer, Danish-born Vitus Bering on Svyatoy Gavriil (Saint Gabriel) made a similar voyage in reverse, starting in Kamchatka and going north to the passage that now bears his name; the Bering Strait. It was Bering who named the Diomede Islands, which Dezhnev had vaguely mentioned.

Bering's explorations of 1725–30 were part of a larger scheme of Peter the Great, known as the Great Northern Expedition.

The Second Kamchatka Expedition took place in 1735–42, with two ships, Svyatoy Pyotr (Saint Peter) and Svyatoy Pavel (Saint Paul), the latter commanded by Bering's deputy in the first expedition, Captain Aleksey Chirikov. During the Second Expedition Bering became the first Westerner to sight the coast of northwestern North America, and Chirikov was the first Westerner to land there (a storm had separated the two ships earlier). On his return leg, Bering discovered the Aleutian Islands but fell ill, and Svyatoy Pyotr had to take shelter on an island off Kamchatka, where Bering died (Bering Island).

Independent of Bering and Chirikov, other Russian Imperial Navy parties took part in the Second Great Northern Expedition. One of these, led by Semyon Chelyuskin, in May 1742 reached Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of both the Northeast Passage and the Eurasian continent.

Later expeditions to explore the Northeast Passage took place in the 1760s (Vasiliy Chichagov), 1785–95 (Joseph Billings and Gavril Sarychev), the 1820s and 1830s (Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, Pyotr Fyodorovich Anjou, Count Fyodor Litke and others). The possibility of navigating the length of the passage was proven by the mid-19th century.

However, it was only in 1878-79 that Fenno-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (born in Finland but exiled to Sweden many years before the expedition) made the first complete passage of the Northeast Passage, leading the Vega expedition from west to east. The ship's captain on this expedition was Lieutenant Louis Palander of the Swedish Royal Navy.

One year before Nordenskiöld's voyage, commercial exploitation of a section of the route started with the so-called Kara expeditions, exporting Siberian agricultural produce via the Kara Sea. Of 122 convoys between 1877 and 1919 only 75 succeeded, transporting as little as 55 tons of cargo. From 1911 the Kolyma River steamboats ran from Vladivostok to the Kolyma once a year.

One of the pictures from Jonas Lied's and Nansen's journey to Siberia (2 August to 26 October 1913). Nansen is the tall man in the centre, number 2 from left hand is Loris-Melikov, number 5 partly concealed is Lied, number 10 is Vostrotin. Fridtjof Nansen started his trans-Siberian travel on a freighter from Oslo to the Yenisei. The journey went through parts of the Northeast Passage, which was to be opened as a shorter trading connection between Western Europe and the Far East. The photograph depicts the encounter of some of the ship's crew with officers from the Russian barges at the mouth of the Yenisei River.

In 1912, two Russian expeditions set out; Captain Georgy Brusilov and the Brusilov Expedition in the Santa Anna, and Captain Alexander Kuchin with Vladimir Rusanov in the Gerkules (Hercules); each with a woman on board. Both expeditions were hastily arranged, and both disappeared. The German Arctic Expedition of 1912, led by Herbert Schröder-Stranz, ended disastrously with only 7 of 15 crew members surviving the preliminary expedition to Nordaustlandet.

In 1913 Jonas Lied organized a successful expedition through the Kara Sea to the Yenisei. Explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen and Siberian industrialist Stephan Vostrotin were prominent passengers. Lied had founded The Siberian company with the purpose of exporting and importing goods through the great Siberian rivers and the Kara Sea. The 1913 trip is recorded in Nansen's Through Siberia.

In 1915, a Russian expedition led by Boris Vilkitskiy made the passage from east to west with the icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach.

Nordenskiöld, Nansen, Amundsen, DeLong, Makarov and others also led expeditions, mainly for scientific and cartographic purposes.

After the Russian Revolution

The introduction of radio, steamboats, and icebreakers made running the Northern Sea Route viable. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet Union was isolated from the western powers, which made it imperative to use this route. Besides being the shortest seaway between the western and far eastern USSR, it was the only one that lay completely inside Soviet internal waters and did not impinge on waters of opposing countries.

In 1932, a Soviet expedition on the icebreaker A. Sibiryakov led by Professor Otto Yulievich Schmidt was the first to sail all the way from Arkhangelsk to the Bering Strait in the same summer without wintering en route. After trial runs in 1933 and 1934, the Northern Sea Route was officially defined and open and commercial exploitation began in 1935. The next year, part of the Baltic Fleet made the passage to the Pacific where armed conflict with Japan was looming.

A special governing body Glavsevmorput (Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route) was set up in 1932, with Otto Schmidt as its director. It supervised navigation and built Arctic ports.

During the early part of World War II, the Soviets allowed the German auxiliary cruiser Komet to use the Northern Sea Route in the summer of 1940 to evade the British Royal Navy and break out into the Pacific Ocean. Komet was escorted by Soviet icebreakers during her journey. After the start of the Soviet-German War, the Soviets transferred several destroyers from the Pacific Fleet to the Northern Fleet via the Arctic. The Soviets also used the Northern Sea Route to transfer materials from the Soviet Far East to European Russia, and the Germans launched Operation Wunderland to interdict this traffic.

A convoy of seven brand-new merchant vessels (900 DWT to 5500 DWT) built for the People's Republic of China but sailing under the Polish flag from Gdynia, reached the port of Pevek (via the Kara, Vilkitsky, Dmitry Laptev and Sannikov Straits), two days of navigation before the Bering Strait in 1956.

In July 1965, USCGC Northwind (WAGB-282), commanded by Captain Kingdrel N. Ayers USCG, conducted an oceanographic survey between Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland and was the first western vessel to operate in the Kara Sea of the Soviet Union, for which she received the Coast Guard Unit Commendation with Operational Distinguishing Device. The real (then-classified) mission of Northwind was to attempt a transit of the "Northeast Passage". The effort was not successful due to diplomatic reasons and caused an international incident between the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A.

After the Soviet Union

After the Soviet Union dissolved in the early 1990s, commercial navigation in the Siberian Arctic went into decline. Regular shipping is found only from Murmansk to Dudinka in the west and between Vladivostok and Pevek in the east. Ports between Dudinka and Pevek see virtually no shipping. Logashkino and Nordvik were abandoned and are now ghost towns.

Renewed interest led to several demonstration voyages in 1997 including the passage of the Finnish product tanker Uikku.

A January 2013 Reuters News report on expanding Russian arctic natural gas shipments to Asia, stated that while shipping traffic on the NSR surged in 2012 to around 1 million tons of various kinds of cargoes, "it pales by comparison with the 1987 peak of 6.6 million tons." It also reported that the Finnish crude oil tanker Uikku was the first non-Russian energy vessel to brave the NSR in 1997.

Now the NSR is developing rapidly. In 2021 85 ships with around 2.75m tons of cargo made their way along the NSR, only 12 of which were under the Russian flag.

Northern Sea Route

Map of the Arctic region showing the Northern Sea Route (yellow & white dash line), in the context of the Northeast Passage, and Northwest Passage

Main article: Northern Sea Route

A similar route to the NEP is the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The NSR is a shipping route that administratively begins at the boundary between the Barents and Kara Seas (the Kara Strait) and ends in the Bering Strait (Cape Dezhnev). The length of the Northern Sea Route from the Kara Gates to Provideniya Bay is about 5600 km. The distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok through the NSR is over 14 thousand km (for comparison, the same distance through the Suez Canal is over 23 thousand km). The Northern Sea Route serves the Arctic ports and major rivers of Siberia by importing fuel, equipment, food and exporting timber and minerals. The Suez or Panama Canal are the alternatives to the Northern Sea Route. However, if the distance from the port of Murmansk (Russia) to the port of Yokohama (Japan) through the Suez Canal is 12,840 nautical miles, the same itinerary along the Northern Sea Route equals only 5,770 nautical miles.

Therefore, the NEP encompasses all the East Arctic seas, and the NSR all the seas except the Barents Sea. Since the NSR constitutes the majority of the NEP, sometimes the term NSR has been used to refer to the entirety of the NEP.

Governance

Further information: Arctic cooperation and politics

The governance of the NEP has developed considerably in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The main sources of governance are the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Arctic Council (AC), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the domestic legislation of the Russian Federation. In combination, they cover territorial claims, economic exploitation, technical shipping requirements, environmental protection, and search and rescue responsibilities.

For example, Rosatom assumes the possibility and functions of the NSR. Rosatom is a state corporation that organizes the navigation of vessels in the waters of the NSR in accordance with the Merchant Shipping Code, manages a fleet of powerful nuclear icebreakers, ensures the safety and uninterrupted operation of navigation, provides port services for gas tankers in case of unfavorable weather conditions. Rosatom also provides navigation and hydrographic support in the waters of the Northern Sea Route, develops the infrastructure of sea harbors, and manages the state property of these ports. For this purpose, the Directorate of the Northern Sea Route was formed, that now manages three subordinate organizations "Atomflot" (ROSATOMFLOT), "Hydrographic Enterprise" and "ChukotAtomEnergo".

Recently, the "Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route" ("Glavsevmorput") was established on the basis of the Naval Operations Headquarters of FSUE “Atomflot”. The main purpose of the creation of the Glavsevmorput is to organize the navigation of vessels in the waters of the Northern Sea Route. Glavsevmorput Federal State Budgetary Institution solves the following tasks: ensuring the organization of icebreaking vessels taking into account the hydrometeorological, ice, and navigation conditions in the waters of the NSR; vessels navigation in the waters of the NSR; issuance, suspension, renewal, and termination of permits for sailing vessels in the waters of the NSR. To solve these tasks, the department arranges icebreaker fleet vessels in the waters of the NSR, monitors the traffic in the NSR water area, provides information on hydrometeorological, ice, and navigation conditions, and processes information from vessels located in the NSR water area. Rosatom is a Legacy Member of the Arctic Economic Council, that’s why all the operations are aimed to establish economic well-being, environmental neutrality, and human capital development.

Pacific-Atlantic distances

The Northeast Passage is a shorter route to connect Northeast Asia with Western Europe, compared to the existing routes through the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, or around the Cape of Good Hope. The table below shows the sailing distances between the major East Asia sea ports, and Rotterdam in Europe (these distances assume no route diversions owing to ice conditions).

Sailing distances between Asia and Europe through the NEP (in nautical miles)

	To Rotterdam, via:
From	Cape of Good Hope	Suez Canal	NEP	Difference between Suez and NEP
Yokohama, Japan	14,448	11,133	7,010	37%
Busan, South Korea	14,084	10,744	7,667	29%
Shanghai, China	13,796	10,557	8,046	24%
Hong Kong, China	13,014	9,701	8,594	11%
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	12,258	8,887	9,428	−6%

Commercial value

A usable Northern Sea Route between northern Europe and North Pacific ports would cut time at sea (and resultant fuel consumption) by more than half. For the corporate players in bulk shipping of relative low-value raw materials, cost savings for fuel may appear as a driver to explore the Northern Sea Route for commercial transits, and not necessarily reduced lead time. The Northern Sea Route allows economies of scale compared to coastal route alternatives, with vessel draught and beam limitation. Environmental demands faced by the maritime shipping industry may emerge as a driver for developing the Northern Sea Route. Increased awareness of environmental benefits and costs for both the Northern Sea Route and Suez routes will probably be important factors in this respect.

In 2011, four ships sailed the length of the Northern Sea Route and Northeast Passage, from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans. In 2012, 46 ships sailed the NSR.

In August 2012, Russian media reported that 85% of vessels transiting the Northern Sea Route in 2011 were carrying gas or oil, and 80% were high-capacity tankers.

As the Northern Sea Route is a strategically important transport artery, it can already be called economically profitable in comparison, for example, with the Suez Canal due to a number of reasons:

• Fuel savings due to reduced distance;
• The shorter distance reduces the cost of staff labor and chartering vessels;
• The Northern Sea Route does not charge payments for the passage (unlike, for example, the Suez Canal);
• There are no queues (unlike, for example, the Suez Canal);
• There is no risk of a pirate attack.

Environmental concerns

In September 2012, Inuit Circumpolar Conference Chair Jimmy Stotts was reported as saying there is concern that increased shipping could adversely affect indigenous hunting of marine mammals. Also concerning is the lack of infrastructure on the Western Alaska coast to deal with a spill or a wrecked vessel.

However, a polar opinion also does exist. The Northern Sea route is considerably shorter than the existing sea routes from Asia to Europe, which makes it more ecological due to less consumption of CO₂. A usable Northern Sea Route between northern Europe and North Pacific ports would cut time at sea (and, accordingly, fuel consumption) by more than half. For the corporate players in bulk shipping of relative low-value raw materials, cost savings for fuel may appear as a driver to explore the Northern Sea Route for commercial transits, and not necessarily reduced lead time. The Northern Sea Route allows economies of scale compared to coastal route alternatives, with vessel draught and beam limitation. Environmental demands faced by the maritime shipping industry may emerge as a driver for developing the Northern Sea Route. With the NSR each year becoming more navigable for commercial shipping nations such as China may be inclined to change their traditional shipping routes from the Suez Cannel to the NSR. This could triple or even quadruple the NSR's shipping tonnage.

According to the Fourth IMO GHG Study 2020, sea cargo transportation is responsible for 2.9% of global emissions. More than that, in the next 20 years the trading maritime volume is expected to double, which may cause even worse consequences for the environment. Now marine transport produces about 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per year and has been struggling for many years to reduce its environmental impact. For example, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has obliged sea carriers to reduce CO₂ emissions by 50% by 2050. It may seem very realistic, but achieving this result may become a tough challenge. Firstly, marine transport generates 14% of all transport emissions, and, secondly, effective techniques that could replace marine engines powered by fossil fuels do not exist yet. Due to its shorter length, navigation on the NSR contributes to reducing the carbon footprint of maritime transport thus contributing to the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals.

Ice conditions

Sea ice extent in March 2013 (left) and September 2013 (right), illustrating the respective monthly averages during the winter maximum and summer minimum extents. The magenta lines indicate the median ice extents in March and September, respectively, during the period 1981–2010.

Unlike the similar latitudes in Alaska and Canada (along the Northwest Passage), parts of the NEP remain ice-free year-round. This is mostly the case of the Barents Sea, by the northern coast of Norway and Northwestern coast of Russia. The Barents sea is affected by the currents of warm water from the Gulf Stream, feeding into the North Atlantic.

Other parts of the NEP (mostly the NSR part), freeze in winter and partially melt in the summer months, especially along the coasts. Since the early 2000s the summer melting has been stronger, and the winter freezing has been weaker, opening the waters to the possibility of more non-ice breaking ships taking advantage of the route for longer periods of time.

Ice-free ports

Arctic Ocean seaports

Only one Russian seaport in the Barents Sea along the officially defined Northern Sea Route (which begins at the Kara Gates Strait) is ice-free year-round, Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula. Other Arctic ports are generally usable from July to October, or, such as Dudinka, are served by nuclear-powered icebreakers. Beyond the Bering Strait, the end of the Northern Sea Route, and south along Russia's Pacific seaboard Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, Vanino, Nakhodka, and Vladivostok are accessible year-round.

The development of the icebreaking fleet is the most important condition for constant navigation in Arctic waters. Since 2008, the structure of Rosatom includes the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet, which is the largest in the world with a container ship, four service vessels and seven nuclear-powered icebreakers (“Yamal”, "50 Let Pobedy", "Taymyr", "Vaygach", "Arctic", "Siberia" and Ural). The last three are the latest universal icebreakers of the 22220 project, and the world's only transport vessel with the Sevmorput nuclear power plant in operation.

Transit shipping activity

Due to its harsh climatic conditions and the low population density, the NEP has had relatively little activity. The NSR portion of the NEP experienced its highest levels of activity during the Soviet era. The NSR greatly developed as a heavily subsidized domestic route, with traffic peaking in 1987 with 6.58 million tons of cargo carried by 331 ships over 1306 voyages. With the end of the Soviet Union and its subsidies, the NSR traffic collapsed to 1.5–2 M tons of cargo.

Since the early 2000s, the thickness and area extent of the Arctic sea ice has experienced significant reduction, compared to the recorded averages. This has led to an increase in transit shipping. In 2011, four ships sailed the entire length of the NEP, 46 in 2012, and 19 in 2013. The number of trips is still very small compared to the thousands of ships each year through the Suez Canal. Mainstream container shipping is expected to continue to overwhelmingly use the Suez route, while niche activities like bulk shipping is expected to grow, driven by the mining industries of the Arctic.

Nevertheless, the cargo traffic is steadily growing every year. The research shows that the NSR-SCR combined shipping scheme can be more competitive than the use of the Suez Canal Route only. If the shipping company provides sufficient loading on the NSR, uses a reliable ice-class vessel for navigation and the price of crude oil is high, the economic advantage of the NSR-SCR combined shipping scheme is obvious. Ice thickness directly affects the shipping cost. Now, when the Arctic ice is slowly melting due to weather conditions, the cost of icebreaking service is expected to reduce. Also, vessels of some ice classes can sail on the NSR independently. That is why the NSR icebreaker escort fee may be several times lower than the SCR toll.

State Corporation Rosatom assumes the possibility and functions of the NSR and ensures the safety of navigation on the high technological level. Besides organizing the navigation along the NSR and the icebreaking services with the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet, Rosatom is planning to implement the Arctic Ice Regime Shipping System (AIRSS) methodology. This system will represent a digital space that will provide various services to cargo carriers, shipowners, captains, insurers, and other participants in the logistics market on the NSR. In particular, it involves issuing permits for the passage of vessels, monitoring, dispatching, and managing the work of the fleet. The single digital platform will collect information from all the available sources, for example, hydrometeorological data, the location of ships and icebreakers, port congestion. As a result, users will receive an advanced "ice navigator" that will allow to plot a precise route in view of the changing ice conditions of the NSR. In other words, the study of Sibul et al. proposed a path-finding algorithm for the NSR strategic assessment. It uses real weather as input and find the optimal shipping route.

Ice-free navigation

Nuclear icebreaker NS 50 Let Pobedy escorting the Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight through the Northern Sea Route in 2009

The term "ice free" generally refers to the absence of fast ice, i.e. continuously frozen surface ice sheet cover. Under common usage "ice free" does not mean that there is no Arctic sea ice. "Ice free" regions can contain broken ice cover of varying density, often still requiring appropriately strengthened hulls or icebreaker support for safe passage.

French sailor Eric Brossier made the first passage by sailboat in only one season in the summer of 2002. He returned to Europe the following summer through the Northwest Passage.

The same year Arved Fuchs and its crew sailed the Northeast Passage with the Dagmar Aaen.

The Northern Sea Route was opened by receding ice in 2005 but was closed by 2007. The amount of polar ice had receded to 2005 levels in August 2008. In late August 2008, it was reported that images from the NASA Aqua satellite had revealed that the last ice blockage of the Northern Sea Route in the Laptev Sea had melted. This would have been the first time since satellite records began that both the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route had been open simultaneously. However, other scientists suggested that the satellite images may have been misread and that the sea route was not yet passable.

In 2009, the Bremen-based Beluga Group claimed they were the first Western company to attempt to cross the Northern Sea Route for shipping without assistance from icebreakers, cutting 4000 nautical miles off the journey between Ulsan, Korea and Rotterdam. The voyage was widely covered and sometimes incorrectly said to be the first time that non-Russian ships made the transit. In 1997, a Finnish oil tanker, Uikku, sailed the length of the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk to the Bering Strait, becoming the first Western ship to complete the voyage.

However, the new (2008) ice-strengthened heavy lift vessels Beluga Fraternity and Beluga Foresight commenced an East-to-West passage of the Northern Sea Route in August 2009 as part of a small convoy escorted by the Russian nuclear icebreaker NS 50 Let Pobedy, westward through the Bering, Sannikov, and Vilkitskiy Straits. The two vessels embarked Russian ice pilots for the voyage to the western Siberian port of Novyy, in the Yamburg region in the delta of the Ob River. The ships arrived at Novyy on 7 September, discharged their cargo to barges and departed on 12 September, bound for the Kara Gates and Rotterdam. They were the first non-Russian commercial vessels to complete this journey, but not without Russian assistance. The captain of the Beluga Foresight, Valeriy Durov, described the achievement as "...great news for our industry." The president of Beluga Shipping claimed the voyage saved each vessel about 300,000 euros, compared to the normal Korea-to-Rotterdam route by way of the Suez Canal. The company did not disclose how much they paid for the escort service and the Russian pilots. An 18 September 2009 press release stated that the company was planning for six vessels to make Arctic deliveries in 2010. It is not clear that this plan was followed up on.

In 2009, the first two international commercial cargo vessels traveled north of Russia between Europe and Asia. In 2011, 18 ships made the now mostly ice-free transit. During 2011, 34 ships made the transit up from a total of 6 ships in 2010. In 2012, 46 commercial ships made the transit. Petroleum products constituted the largest cargo group. In 2013 71 commercial ships made the transit.

On 28 July 2009, the sailing yacht RX II (36-foot length), with expedition leader Trond Aasvoll and crew Hans Fredrik Haukland and Finn Andreassen left Vardø in Norway on a quest to circumnavigate the North Pole. The northern sea route proved ice free and the three Norwegians sailed into the Bering Strait on 24 September. But Russian bureaucracy managed to do what the arctic waters didn't – to stop their effort to sail around in one season. The boat over-wintered in Nome, and finished the trip through the Northwest passage the following summer.

Also in 2009, Ola Skinnarmo and his crew sailed the Northeast Passage aboard Explorer of Sweden, becoming the second Swedish sailboat to transit the Northeast Passage, after Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld.

In September 2010, two yachts circumnavigated the Arctic: Børge Ousland's team aboard The Northern Passage, and Sergei Murzayev's team in the Peter I. These were the first recorded instances of the circumnavigation of the Arctic by sailing yachts in one season.

The largest ship as of 2011 is the 117,000 tonne SCF Baltica loaded with natural-gas condensate.

In 2012, the 288-metre (945 ft) LNG carrier Ob River became the first ship of its kind to transit the Northern Sea Route. The vessel completed the westbound voyage in ballast in only six days and planned to sail back to Asia in November with a full load of liquified natural gas. The growth in traffic has been startling. 46 ships sailed the entire length from Europe to East Asia during 2012. By July 2013, the administrators of the Northern Sea Route had granted permission to 204 ships to sail during the season. By that time, Arctic sea ice had declined substantial especially on the Atlantic side of the Arctic. "On July 15 extent came within 540,000 square kilometers (208,000 square miles) of that seen in 2012 on the same date... (Compared to the 1981 to 2010 average, ice extent on July 15, 2013 was 1.06 million square kilometers (409,000 square miles) below average.)" (Summer 2012 Arctic sea ice volume reached a record low.)

During early September 2013 the Russian battlecruiser Petr Velikiy led a flotilla of Russian navy ships with icebreaker support along the Northern Sea Route to the New Siberian Islands. About 400 ships were expected to transit the Russian portion of the route during the 2013 season, up from about 40 during 2012.

On 15 September 2015, the Chinese trimaran Qingdao China set a speed record by sailing from Murmansk to the Bering Strait in 13 days.

On 3 October 2019 Nanni Acquarone became the first Italian skipper with the Italian cutter Best Explorer to sail both Northwest Passage in 2012 and Northeast Passage with a sailboat clockwise. Best Explorer started 1 June 2012 from Tromsø (Norway) sailing the Northwest Passage (first Italian boat and Italian skipper) and after several years of sailing in the Pacific got the permission to follow the Northeast Passage without assistance and without a Russian on board with a crew of 5, including Salvatore Magri who sailed the Northwest Passage with Nanni. In 2019 Best Explorer left Petropavlovsk Kamchatski on 3 August and crossed the Bering Strait on 19 August reaching Murmansk on 22 September.

Commemoration

In 2007, Finland issued a €10 Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld and Northeast Passage commemorative coin to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Nordenskiöld's birth and his discovery of the northern sea route. The obverse features an abstract portrait of Nordenskiöld at the helm of his ship. The reverse is dominated by a pattern resembling the labyrinth formed by adjacent ice floes. The coin is one of the Europa Coins 2007 series, which celebrates European achievements in history.