Establishing the Permanent Presence of the United States in the Artic

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for establishing the permanent presence of the United States in the Arctic. The rapidly changing physical and strategic environment of the Arctic highlights the United States' lack of strategic and operational Arctic reach. Considering that Strategic power is exercised via Diplomatic, Information, Military and Economic instruments, the lack of Arctic operational reach highlights U.S. deficiencies in the Military instrument of strategic power in the Arctic domain. This in turn creates complementary shortfalls in the U.S.'s Diplomatic, Information, and Economic powers related to Arctic Strategic interests due to their entwined natures. First, by creating an Arctic Combatant Command, the US removes current operational ambiguity between USNORTHCOM and USEUCOM in the Arctic Area of Responsibility (AOR). Second, by training and reallocating ships to conduct Arctic deployments and train in navigable waters that mimic forecasted Arctic conditions, the US prepares to always operate in the Arctic. Lastly, the establishment of forward deployed bases ensures rapid and consistent permanent access to the expanded Global Commons and newly accessible resources. The establishment of a U.S. permanent presence in the Arctic positively impacts the global commons by encouraging free and open trade, peace, and stability to an increasingly contested and strategically advantageous region of the world. U.S. permanence in the Arctic also assures the Military instrument of strategic power is enabled via assured access to resources and national defense assets that can challenge military use of the Arctic against the U.S. and its allies, and provides enhanced options for peace and stability Diplomatically, protecting the Arctic and Arctic nations Informationally, and ensuring equal access to the Global Commons Economically.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 12, 2023
Accession Number
AD1207535

Entities

People

  • Christian M. Mier

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Department Of Defense
  • Deployment
  • Gases
  • Geography
  • Infrastructure
  • Marine Transportation
  • Naval Operations
  • Oceans
  • Topography
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States European Command
  • United States Northern Command
  • War Colleges
  • Waterways

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Polar and Arctic Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies