The White House released a new Arctic strategy on Friday that calls to “enhance” the US military presence in the region to counter Russia and China.
As the Pentagon has shifted its focus toward so-called “great power competition” with Russia and China, the US military has identified the Arctic as a potential future battleground.
The security section of the White House strategy says the US will “enhance and exercise both our military and civilian capabilities in the Arctic as required to deter threats and to anticipate, prevent, and respond to both natural and human-made incidents.”
As part of the enhanced military presence, the strategy calls for more exercises with allies in the region to “deter aggression in the Arctic, especially from Russia.” The strategy accuses China of trying “to increase its influence in the Arctic through an expanded slate of economic, diplomatic, scientific, and military activities.”
NATO is looking to expand more into the Arctic, which it calls its “northern flank.” The military alliance’s presence in the region could get a boost if Turkey signs off on Sweden and Finland’s prospective membership, as both countries have territory in the Arctic.
The strategy calls for increased cooperation with other Arctic nations but says cooperation with Russia is “virtually impossible” due to the war in Ukraine. “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,” the strategy says.
Branches of the US military have also released strategies outlining an increased presence in the Arctic. The US Army released a strategy document last year that said the Arctic has the “potential to become a contested space where United States’ great power rivals, Russia and China, seek to use military and economic power to gain and maintain access to the region at the expense of US interests.”
It’s called great power competition because that’s exactly what it is.
The strategy accuses China — as if efforts to increase influence in those ways were other than exactly what nation states, especially great power states always do. And what the US does and has done more, and more relentlessly, than any other state since World War One.
Translation: We must prevent them from gaining and/or maintaining access to the region, because our interests, as planetary hegemon, are as limitless as our appetite is insatiable.
Ain’t no hidden motives here. “We’re Number One, and we intend to do anything and everything possible to maintain that position.”
The US never stops looking for wars to start and fight.No place on Earth is safe from the depredations of the MIC. The trillions of dollars wasted over the last 50 years better spent on social,economic,political reforms would have made this country a better place to live for the masses,but that is not where the profits lie for our Capitalistic ruling class.
i wonder how the pentagon will pretend that china is able to access the arctic without opposition
Yeah. But you know they’ll find a way. And most American people will be fooled, as they are most of the time.
NATO would do well to watch their southern flank because it is where the real threat lies.
Trying to wage War in the Arctic without any Ice Breakers is a pretty stupid idea.
HOW DARE THEY ! ! ! #sarcasm
In a “great power competition”, there will be winners and losers. Given that we are talking about nuclear countries, it makes me wonder how far the competitors are willing to go?…
NATO really chaps my ass… Is the Arctic a good place for Armageddon?