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Great Power Competition in the Arctic
“This new ocean is appearing on our maps, and it has all kinds of different implications… If you think about the Mediterranean Sea, there were 1,000 years of war to determine the relationships of those countries surrounding it. The question is can we open the Arctic and avoid the conflict?” – Angus King (I-ME) to…
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The Arctic policy ecosytem from the perspective of the US executive branch
The Arctic is hot these days, and it’s not just the climate. The United States in particular has accelerated its policy activities as we covered in a recent timeline analysis. A mere week after we published that article came the announcement by the Department of Defense that it is establishing an Arctic Strategy and Resilience Office, with…
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GAO report on Arctic maritime infrastructure
The Government Accountability Office today released a report, Arctic Maritime Infrastructure: Government-wide and Coast Guard Strategies Lack a Means to Measure Progress. The report was used as testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. The report is an update to two prior reports, an…
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Russia attempts to limit freedom of navigation in the Northern Sea Route
The Russian parliament passed a law this week in an attempt to exert control over the Northern Sea Route north of Siberia. The law includes provisions that limit military traffic to a single vessel at a time, that military vessels give three months notification, and that submarines transit on the surface. The law was first…
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IARPC releases 2022 Biennial Implementation Plan for Arctic research
In December 2021 the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026. The plan is a vision document written by the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC), an agency that coordinates activities by sixteen federal agencies. For context see our visualization of the US Arctic policy ecosystem. The plan…
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US Department of Energy releases Arctic Strategy
Federal efforts to coalesce around an integrated Arctic strategy continue with the release of the US Department of Energy Arctic Strategy. The DOE has intensified its Arctic engagement in recent years starting with the 2020 reactivation of its Arctic Energy Office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The reports builds on the standard vision of…
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The Government of the Faroe Islands releases Arctic strategy
The Government of the Faroe Islands released its arctic strategy on October 13 at the Arctic Circle Assembly 2022 in Reykjavík. Situated in the GIUK gap between Iceland and Scotland and self-governing since 1948, the 50,000 citizens of the Faroe Islands are under the “external sovereignty” of Denmark. They have a strong focus on Arctic issues and participate in the Arctic Council as part of a delegation…
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NATO in the Arctic
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will be celebrating its 75th birthday in 2024 and its role is more relevant than ever. NATO has a vested interest in the Arctic through its members: Denmark, Iceland, and Norway are three of the eleven founding members of NATO. They have a special arrangement: no permanent military bases, no nuclear…
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A Canadian Arctic policy for the Indo-Pacific
The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada is a great resource on that nation’s relationships and objectives in the region. One of the issue areas they track is Strategic Asia, and they occasionally check in on Arctic issues as they did in 2018 with a four-part series on China’s Polar Silk Road. The author of that series, Sebastian Murdoch-Gibson, also did a…
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2022 National Security Strategy released with strong emphasis on Arctic region
The National Security Strategy is a report mandated by Section 603 of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-433). The report is due every four years, but in reality the deadline is treated in a somewhat elastic manner. Previous reports were released in 1987-88, 1990-91, 1993-2000, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2017.…
