Follow us on social

26896891638_b7a2b3887d_o-scaled-e1666985650685

Russian aggression gives US excuse to focus military, and more, on Arctic

In its new strategy, Washington will “seek to uphold international law, rules, norms, and standards in the Arctic.”

Analysis | Global Crises

With Russian aggression inducing a rethink of Arctic policy and strategy among its circumpolar neighbors, and climate change continuing to thaw the polar world at an intensifying pace, the United States has been intensively refocusing more of its strategic and diplomatic attention on the Arctic region, culminating in a series of recent Arctic organizational, policy and strategy updates.

These include the White House’s August 2022 announcement of its plan to establish a new ambassador for the Arctic region, followed in September with the formation of the new Arctic Strategy and Global Resilience Office at the Pentagon.

Then in October, the White House unveiled its new National Strategy for the Arctic Region, updating strategy from 2013 for today’s complex and fast-evolving strategic landscape. As noted in its executive summary, the new Arctic strategy “addresses the climate crisis with greater urgency and directs new investments in sustainable development to improve livelihoods for Arctic residents, while conserving the environment. It also acknowledges increasing strategic competition in the Arctic since 2013, exacerbated by Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine, and seeks to position the United States to both effectively compete and manage tensions.”

The updated strategy includes four pillars — Security, Climate Change and Environmental Protection, Sustainable Economic Development, and International Cooperation and Governance. On this fourth pillar, the strategy asserts, “Despite the challenges to Arctic cooperation resulting from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the United States will work to sustain institutions for Arctic cooperation, including the Arctic Council, and position these institutions to manage the impacts of increasing activity in the region.” The United States will “also seek to uphold international law, rules, norms, and standards in the Arctic.”

As a headline in the October 10 edition of High North News aptly summarizes, “New US Arctic Strategy Foreshadows Increasing Hurdles for Cooperation in a More Complex Region.”

As described in its introduction, “Despite current tensions stemming from Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” the new U.S. strategy “seeks an Arctic region that is peaceful, stable, prosperous, and cooperative” with “guardrails to manage competition and resolve disputes without force or coercion … working primarily with our allies and partners to solve shared challenges.” Russia will continue to be isolated to the sidelines, as its “war of aggression against Ukraine has rendered government-to-government cooperation with Russia in the Arctic virtually impossible. Over the coming decade, it may be possible to resume cooperation under certain conditions. Russia’s continued aggression makes most cooperation unlikely for the foreseeable future.”

Despite newly re-awakened concerns with the challenge presented by Russia to Arctic security, there is still much in the updated U.S. Arctic strategy that is familiar, with an echo of the collaborative dynamic embraced in past American Arctic strategies and policies. Indeed, the new strategy is not the first to note new challenges to the cooperative Arctic, with such concerns finding more prominence in policy statements after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and China’s self-declaration as a “Near-Arctic” state in 2018.

Importantly, the U.S. strategy update offers much reassurance on the role of indigenous peoples and perspectives. Two of its four pillars directly address indigenous peoples and their wellbeing. From the Climate Change and Environmental Protection pillar, Washington “will partner with Alaskan communities and the State of Alaska to build resilience to the impacts of climate change, while working to reduce emissions from the Arctic as part of broader global mitigation efforts, to improve scientific understanding, and to conserve Arctic ecosystems.”

As part of the Sustainable Economic Development pillar, Washington has pledged to “pursue sustainable development and improve livelihoods in Alaska, including for Alaska Native communities.” Moreover, the United States “will be guided by five principles that will be applied across all four pillars,” with the very first of these five being “Consult, Coordinate, and Co-Manage with Alaska Native Tribes and Communities,” elevating co-management to a prominent guiding principle for Arctic strategy.

The United States thus remains “committed to regular, meaningful, and robust consultation, coordination, and co-management with Alaska Native Tribes, communities, corporations, and other organizations and to ensuring equitable inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and their knowledge.”

The updated Arctic strategy, with its echoes of more cooperative times, offers a reaffirmation of hope that the Arctic will continue to be a region defined more by cooperation than conflict — even if in the near-term such cooperation is confined to the expanded footprint of NATO’s Arctic members, with Russia excluded. Importantly, Arctic indigenous peoples feature more prominently as partners in America’s Arctic strategy as the 7 democratic Arctic states become more closely aligned within NATO in their collective effort to deter Russian aggression from extending beyond the storm engulfing the Black Sea to the still calm and ever hopeful waters of the Arctic.


BEAUFORT SEA (March 10, 2018) The Seawolf-class submarine The Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) breaks though the ice in the Beaufort Sea in support of Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2018. The five-week exercise that allows the U.S. Navy to assess its operational readiness in the Arctic, increase experience in the region, advance understanding of the Arctic environment and continue to develop relationships with other services, allies and partner organizations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication 2nd Class Micheal H. Lee/Released)180310-N-LY160-744 Join the conversation: http://www.navy.mil/viewGallery.asp http://www.facebook.com/USNavy http://www.twitter.com/USNavy http://navylive.dodlive.mil http://pinterest.com https://plus.google.com
Analysis | Global Crises
Mike Waltz: Drop Ukraine draft age to 18
Top Photo: Incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on ABC News on January 12, 2025

Mike Waltz: Drop Ukraine draft age to 18

QiOSK

Following a reported push from the Biden administration in late 2024, Mike Waltz - President-elect Donald Trump’s NSA pick - is now advocating publicly that Ukraine lower its draft age to 18, “Their draft age right now is 26 years old, not 18 ... They could generate hundreds of thousands of new soldiers," he told ABC This Week on Sunday.

Ukraine needs to "be all in for democracy," said Waltz. However, any push to lower the draft age is unpopular in Ukraine. Al Jazeera interviewed Ukrainians to gauge the popularity of the war, and raised the question of lowering the draft age, which had been suggested by Biden officials in December. A 20-year-old service member named Vladislav said in an interview that lowering the draft age would be a “bad idea.”

keep readingShow less
AEI
Top image credit: DCStockPhotography / Shutterstock.com

AEI would print money for the Pentagon if it could

QiOSK

The American Enterprise Institute has officially entered the competition for which establishment DC think tank can come up with the most tortured argument for increasing America’s already enormous Pentagon budget.

Its angle — presented in a new report written by Elaine McCusker and Fred "Iraq Surge" Kagan — is that a Russian victory in Ukraine will require over $800 billion in additional dollars over five years for the Defense Department, whose budget is already poised to push past $1 trillion per year.

keep readingShow less
Biden weapons Ukraine
Top Image Credit: Diplomacy Watch: US empties more weapons stockpiles for Ukraine ahead of Biden exit

Diplomacy Watch: Biden unleashes stockpiles to Ukraine ahead of exit

QiOSK

The Biden administration is putting together a final Ukraine aid package — about $500 million in weapons assistance — as announced in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s final meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which coordinates weapons support to Ukraine.

The capabilities in the announcement include small arms and ammunition, communications equipment, AIM-7, RIM-7, and AIM-9M missiles, and F-16 air support.

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.