Lawson Brigham, Distinguished Professor of Geography and Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, presented a public lecture titled, "The New Maritime Arctic: Crossroads of Globalization, Climate Change, and Geopolitics" at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 10, in Bowl 016, Robertson Hall. The lecture was part of LISD's 10th Anniversary lecture series, "Changing Notions of State, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination." The lecture series features leading scholars and practitioners and engages with a wide range of issues areas and subjects including the Arctic; the Balkans and Kosovo; indigenous peoples and self-determination; Responsibility to Protect; self-determination and space; regionalization, citizenship, and self-determination; self-determination and religion; self-determination and economy; and quantitative approaches to self-determination. All lectures are free and open to the public. The Woodrow Wilson School co-sponsored the spring lecturesl. The February 10 lecture was also co-sponsored by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS).

Brigham is Distinguished Professor of Geography and Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of the North in Anchorage. Widely published in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Russia and Norway, his research interests for more than three decades have focused on the Soviet/Russian maritime Arctic, Arctic climate change, marine transportation, remote sensing of sea ice, Arctic environmental protection, and polar geopolitics.

From 2005 to 2009 he was chair and US co-lead of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment and vice chair of the Council’s working group on Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment. He was a career US Coast Guard officer serving from 1970 to 1995 and retiring with the rank of captain. Brigham also served as chief of strategic planning and director of the work-life study at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. He has participated in more than 15 Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

He has been a research fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a faculty member of the US Coast Guard Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, and deputy director and Alaska office director of the US Arctic Research Commission.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (BS), a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College, and holds graduate degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (MS) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil and PhD).