“The position of the United States upon the two oceans would be either a source of great weakness or a cause of enormous expense.” When Alfred Thayer Mahan penned these words, Alaska was not yet a state and the Arctic was still a vast icescape. But now Mahan’s...
Recently, the Moscow Times reported that Russia would coordinate a deal with China and North Korea to allow Chinese ships to navigate through a seventeen-kilometer stretch of the Tumen River to the Rason Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on the Pacific coast. The Tumen...
China’s interest in Antarctica has been a consistent—and proportionate—feature of its rise as a global power. Its interest stems in part from the frozen continent’s wealth of untapped natural resources that could potentially secure Beijing’s economic prosperity well...
In 2013, Frank Hoffman described the “bifurcation between policy and operations” as a black hole in American strategic culture that needed to be closed. Realism, others have argued convincingly, offers the best means of doing so. No region is characterized by a...
The United States cannot deter what it cannot detect. Two decades of twenty-first-century national security policies and strategies identify homeland defense as the top priority. Despite commitment to defending the homeland, at least in policy rhetoric, Washington...
The age of Arctic exceptionalism is gone: the high north region is no longer a protected sphere of Russia-West engagement and dialogue. The decision in March by Arctic Council states to suspend cooperation with Moscow in the Arctic was immediately welcomed but might...
In 1987, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called for the Arctic to be a “zone of peace.” In a speech declaring that the region would remain separate from the confrontations and conflicts of the middle latitudes, he expressed a vision for Arctic exceptionalism—setting a...
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine is the latest punctuation in Putin’s pattern of bellicosity. US strategists and policymakers cannot afford to overlook what Russia’s hubris may mean for North America’s future national security. This is not to say that Russia will...
The Arctic Council’s 2021 Strategic Plan was celebrated for its forward-thinking ambitions. Members envisioned an Arctic in 2030 to be a “region of peace, stability and constructive cooperation.” While Russian actions in Ukraine are at odds with liberal rules–based...
Recently, Project 6633 asked authors to answer the question, “How can American special operations forces compete with near-peer adversaries in the polar regions?” The winning essay, "Competing in the Arctic through Indigenous Group Engagement and Special...
In the North Pole, Santa is busy making a list and checking it twice. Which Arctic states have been naughty and who has been nice? We look at the 2021 scorecard for the Arctic Five (states littoral to the Arctic Ocean)—what’s on their wish list and what should these...
Thanks to renewed emphasis on Arctic operations from potential adversaries, the United States Army has expressed a desire to form forces explicitly developed to fight in Arctic environments. Personnel from the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning have begun...
In 2007 Canada’s then prime minister Stephen Harper stated, “Canada's new government understands that the first principle of Arctic sovereignty is: Use it or lose it.” The Conservative government of the time saw Canadian sovereignty of its Arctic north increasingly...
Words mean things. Simple yet obvious, this maxim encourages purposeful and considered word choice, including for the US military. Our words—and the meanings they convey in policy and strategy—shape our actions. When Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said in 2017 that...
In May 2021, Russia's took over the chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Ahead of the beginning of its two-year tenure, Russia's leadership has emphasized the importance of military-security dialog in the region. It seems Moscow firmly wants to resume military dialogue...
Editor’s note: The Modern War Institute’s Project 6633 and the US Army’s 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) recently hosted an essay contest aimed at generating new ideas and expanding the community of interest for special operations in the polar regions. In this...
Editor's note: The Modern War Institute’s Project 6633 and the US Army’s 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) recently hosted an essay contest aimed at generating new ideas and expanding the community of interest for special operations in the polar regions....
Editor's note: The Modern War Institute’s Project 6633 and the US Army’s 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) recently hosted an essay contest aimed at generating new ideas and expanding the community of interest for special operations in the polar regions....
Editor's note: The Modern War Institute's Project 6633 and the US Army's 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) recently hosted an essay contest aimed at generating new ideas and expanding the community of interest for special operations in the polar regions....
While armed conflict in the Arctic is unlikely in the short to medium term, rhetoric is becoming more bellicose. With the new Biden administration, it will be pertinent to watch four key geopolitical developments in the Arctic. Rhetoric Shifts: The Arctic as a Zone of...
Nothingness. Darkness. Whiteness. Remoteness. Snow. Ice. Polar bears. Penguins. These are some common conceptions of the polar regions. Maturing our Arctic and Antarctic policy narratives and knowledge is a strategic imperative, particularly in an era of great power...
Editor’s note: Dr. Elizabeth Buchanan, codirector of Project 6633, recently had the opportunity to ask a series of questions to Nikolay Korchunov, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ ambassador at large for Arctic cooperation and the senior Arctic official of the...
The Arctic has long been a theatre of military-strategic competition, which reached its highest levels during the Cold War. Although the Soviet Union collapsed, much of Russia’s strategic nuclear stockpiles remain above the Arctic Circle. Moscow has since engaged in...
This episode of the MWI Podcast is the second in recent weeks to focus on the Arctic region. Recently, the Modern War Institute launched Project 6633—an initiative that focuses on issues related to polar security. One of the project's codirectors, Ryan Burke, recently...
Two weeks into his administration, President Joe Biden delivered his first public speech on US foreign policy and national security. It covered a lot of ground and signaled the direction the administration intends to move—renewed focus on the value of alliances,...
This episode of the Modern War Institute Podcast features a conversation with Col. Brian Rauen and Capt. Barrett Martin. Col. Rauen is the commander of 10th Special Forces Group and Capt. Martin is one of the officers assigned to the group. The episode features a...
Above latitude 66 degrees, 33 minutes north, we did not see the sun rise above the horizon for weeks. Icebreaking in nearly complete darkness demanded heightened situational awareness from cutter personnel. Operating safely in the Arctic winter presents unique...
In our global information age, connectivity plays a central role. The geopolitics of connectivity is increasingly garnering attention, presenting various challenges and opportunities. Unfolding in real-time is a new great game of sorts: the digitalization of the...
Project 6633 generates new knowledge centered on Arctic and Antarctic security for the profession of arms. To do so, pools of expertise need to be drawn together. Our team reached out to various academic, military, political, and NGO leaders to curate a collection of...
US strategic indifference toward the polar regions has led to atrophy and security capability gaps that require urgent attention. As these regions have warmed and continue to open, the twenty-first-century great power competition has ascended to the Arctic and will...
In this episode of the MWI Podcast, John Amble is joined by Dr. Liz Buchanan and Dr. Ryan Burke. They are both Modern War Institute fellows, and they are also the directors of a new initiative launched this week that MWI is hosting—Project 6633—that will serve as a...
The Arctic and Antarctica are well-known Cold War theaters. While these frozen frontiers hosted strategic competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, they also produced legacies of cooperation that have extended through the twentieth and into the...
66º33' are the northern and southern latitudinal lines of the Arctic Circle (66º33' N) and Antarctic Circle (66º33' S), respectively. Few cross these lines for any reason, though today more are doing so under the pretext of defense and security. Project 6633 is...