US Army announces Arctic Strategy aimed at engaging in “Great power competition” with Russia and China
The US Army announced on Tuesday its Arctic Strategy, dubbed “Regaining Arctic Dominance”. The title itself is a clear indication of the USA’s aims towards the region going forward as the Biden administration continues the overall approach of its predecessor in confronting the perceived encroachment of rivals.
The strategy lays out wider US policy towards the Arctic and the US Army’s specific response to these requirements. The Arctic’s relevance to the US is summarized as an “arena of increased competition, a line of attack in conflict, a vital area holding many of our nation’s natural resources, and a platform for global power projection”. This is a significant departure from former post-Cold War US policy towards the region where it was perceived as one of low tension. The US Army are thus joining a similar approach taken by other wings of US defence post-2018, and signalling the final nail in the coffin for the Arctic as primarily a region of environmental concern for the US.
The US Army in the paper specifically calls out Russia and China in the Arctic as “great power rivals” who it sees as seeking to use military and economic power to “gain and maintain access to the region at the expense of US interests”. These interests primarily being the nature of the Arctic now as a “corridor for expanding strategic great power competition between two regions- the Indo-Pacific and Europe”. In this context Russia’s specific attempts to control transit along the Northern Sea Route, and China’s conception of the Arctic as a region of “undetermined sovereignty” are picked up on as key causes of future tension.
To safeguard US interests and counteract the perceived threat of Russian and Chinese ambitions in the region the US aims to develop its ability to project power from within and into the Arctic for competition, crisis and conflict purposes. A full spectrum approach is intended with the Army geared to tackle war-fighting and deterrence, but also regional development. To facilitate this the US army intends to both invest heavily in up-skilling its Arctic war-fighting and deployment credentials through new training and equipment, but also through the establishment of new multi-domain focused units and headquarters- a recognition of the Arctics integration into world affairs from its previous isolation.
The strategy for a greater military focus in the region comes at a time when the US is essentially playing catch-up in terms of Arctic power projection. Russia’s Arctic focus is long established, It vastly outnumbers the US in ice-breaker capacity, it regularly sends troops to undergo Arctic training, and has a large and growing military presence in the region. Achieving regional parity with Russia and China, who both have significant asymmetric and hybrid capabilities will be a challenge requiring significant investment, the US however is clearly willing to put in the required resources.
In broad terms then the US Army Arctic strategy represents the now comprehensive recognition by governments and institutes globally of a melting Arctic’s new role as a corridor facilitating trade and transport, rather than a barrier, and how this has become an integral feature in global strategic planning. This will have, as we are beginning to see, profound implications for global geopolitics, as travel times between Asia-America and Asia-Europe are almost halved, facilitating power projection to a far easier degree in terms of costs and logistics, and making the world that much smaller.