The End of Grand Strategy by Simon Reich & Peter Dombrowski

Author:Simon Reich & Peter Dombrowski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2017-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

The Origins of America’s Arctic Strategy

With more than one thousand miles of Arctic Ocean coastline and fifty thousand citizens residing above the Arctic Circle,16 the United States has been an Arctic state since Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867—the so-called Seward’s Folly in which the US Secretary of State William H. Seward bought 586,412 square miles for $7.2 million.17 But the region has rarely constituted a core American security concern or been an essential source of national wealth. Even during the Cold War—when the USS Nautilus demonstrated the ability of the nuclear submarine fleet to transit under the ice, hide from Soviet surveillance systems, and transport ballistic missiles capable of targeting wide expanses—the US strategic community largely took the Arctic for granted. It was not an area the United States needed to protect for itself or for use by its allies.

The United States has, nonetheless, maintained a sporadic regional presence. The US Coast Guard arrived in Alaska many decades before the Navy in the form of its institutional predecessor, the Revenue Cutter Service. Its purpose was not related to security, but rather the taxmen stationed a cutter in Alaska to prevent smuggling and collect tariffs.18 The military first ventured into the Arctic with Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s flight to the North Pole in 1926. During World War II, and intermittently during the Cold War, the US Navy conducted operations ranging from scientific expeditions to nuclear-armed submarine deterrence.19 New military technologies and capabilities—including nuclear submarines, ballistic missiles, and early warning systems—eventually made the Arctic a theater in the US-Soviet rivalry.20 Furthermore, Alaska hosted listening posts for spying on the Russian Far East, as well as naval and air bases. In the post–Cold War era, Fort Greeley has served as one of two bases for the nation’s ground-based ballistic missile defense radars and interceptor missiles.

Aside from missile defense installations, the Arctic receded in significance for US national security: the United States essentially adopted an Isolationist regional strategy. Only in President George W. Bush’s second term did the rapid Arctic melt and shifts in the security environment precipitate renewed discussions of the region.21 The Bush administration’s National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD-66 (January 2009) stated that “the United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic region and is prepared to operate either independently or in conjunction with other states to safeguard these interests … includ[ing] such matters as missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sealift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence, and maritime security operations; and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.” It further noted that the Arctic as a maritime domain requires the United States “to assert a more active and influential national presence to protect its Arctic interests and to project sea power throughout the region.”22

Table 7.1 Select Arctic strategy and policy documents

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