While Russia is systematically preparing and positioning itself in the Arctic region by militarizing, the Obama administration has done nothing to implement U.S. National Strategy on the Arctic.
Surprise! Not.
At a House hearing on “Implementing U.S. Policy in the Arctic” in July 2014, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chair of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, said “The National Strategy calls for a strong U.S presence in the Arctic, but the Implementation Plan that accompanies it fails to identify what specific infrastructure or capabilities are required to meet those goals, or how or when they will be funded.”
A new frontier is becoming a center of great power rivalry.
It is the Arctic, believed to have vast untapped natural resources and increasingly is at the center of disputes between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark in recent years, as rising temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice, opening up access to lucrative offshore oil and gas deposits.
Ed Adamczyk reports for UPI, Oct. 21, 2014, that Russia has begun a large-scale militarization of the Arctic Ocean region, after recent discoveries of oil and natural gas reserves under the ocean floor, as well as the possibility that a potential Northern Sea Route — an alternative to the Suez Canal — could soon be established as global climate change causes melting of Arctic ice.
The Russian news agency RIA reports that Russia is planning to build a military command structure in…
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