The US Pentagon has published its new “2024 Arctic Strategy“, a report on the strategy in the region, in which the Americans claim that the situation in the field is changing rapidly, they describe China as an “evolving challenge” and Russia as an “acute threatening”.
While the Pentagon’s 2024 Arctic Strategy is the first update on the Defense Department’s approach to the region since 2019, it also builds on the 2022 National Security Strategy and the 2022 National Defense Strategy.
The Pentagon will expand intelligence-sharing capabilities, work with allies and partners to contain Russia in the Arctic, and conduct regular exercises and planned operations that have defense and deterrence implications. Underscoring that the new doctrine carries deadly risks of conflict with Russia and China.
As part of the new strategy, the Pentagon will strengthen its “domain awareness, communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities” in the Arctic. It will also “work with allies and partners to support defense and deterrence in the Arctic.” Finally, the Department of Defense will “activate a well-coordinated presence in the Arctic, regularly training in the region and conducting operations critical to ‘maintaining deterrence.’
NATO is developing in the Arctic with Finland and Sweden at the forefront
The US military therefore believes that the Arctic region is undergoing rapid changes: on the one hand, Russia and China are constantly improving their cooperation in the region. On the other hand, the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO creates new opportunities for the Western military alliance in the Far North.
Although China is not an Arctic country, it plays a huge role in the Arctic policy of all countries – both Russia and NATO member states.
The Pentagon’s strategy also refers to the fact that Russia continues to invest in new military infrastructure and modernize Soviet-era facilities in the region amid the war in Ukraine. We should keep in mind that the shortest air route for missiles or bombers between the US and Russia would be over the North Pole.
NATO’s expansion into the Arctic due to the accession of two Nordic nations – Finland and Sweden – provides new incentives for Russia’s defense of its Arctic territories.
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Last December, CBS News cited security experts who explained that the West’s military footprint in the Arctic lags about 10 years behind Russia’s.
Meanwhile, the Kola Peninsula – which lies mostly in northwestern Russia and partly in Finland and Norway – is home to Russia’s Northern Fleet. Another issue of utmost importance touched by the renewed doctrine is that Russia controls the North Sea route which is gaining new importance as the shortest shipping and trade route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region amid climate change.
The corridor passes almost entirely through Russia’s territorial waters, or the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Russian law defines the relevant corridor as a “historically developed national transport corridor”. For its part, the US has repeatedly tried to challenge this stance by arguing that the route is “an international strait”.
Russia facing a new fleet of icebreakers that are doomed to obsolescence
The leaders of the US, Canada and Finland announced their intention to create the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, to strengthen their presence in the Far North. Finland, the US and Canada plan to jointly build a fleet of icebreakers that will operate in the Arctic zone. This will seriously affect Russia’s actions in its Arctic zone.
In addition, the doctrine also refers to global warming as a critical regional factor in terms of economics, security and geopolitics. As the ice melts, the overall strategic importance of the region changes, because the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and the Barents Sea north of Norway become more navigable and more important economically and militarily. The strategy points out that by 2030 we can generally expect the climate here to change so much that it will be possible not even to use icebreakers.
