The Foreign Service Journal, November 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2015 27 Europe and North America; and developing positive relations with nations that may hold the key to major future energy resources in the Arctic. China is well prepared for the Arctic’s future and appears ready to assume a major role there as condi- tions change. America and the Arctic So where does this leave the United States? U.S. involvement in the Arctic up to this point has been mostly related to science, energy exploration, and bilateral and multilateral treaty negotia- tions through the Arctic Council. The first Arctic strategy of any consequence was issued by the George W. Bush administra- tion in January 2009; there was no comprehensive Arctic vision before that time. Because the Obama administration has not issued its own strategy, the 2009 version—known as National Security Presidential Directive 66/Homeland Security Presi- dential Directive 25, or NSPD 66/HSPD 25—is the official Arc tic policy of the United States. The document lays out in general terms what American goals are for the Arctic, touching on national security, the environment, energy resources, interna- tional cooperation and indigenous populations. In many ways, these mirror the official focus areas of the Arctic Council, whose chairmanship Washington first held from 1998 to 2000. The Department of State is the lead agency on issues having to do with the Arctic due to its status as the home of the office tasked with Arctic Council relations. Many other agencies, how- ever, including Commerce, Transportation, Defense, Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, work on Arctic issues under State’s direction. The Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs resides within State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and is led by the recently appointed first-ever Special Represen- tative for the Arctic, retired Admiral and former Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp. That office itself has four full-time employees dedicated to working on Arctic issues. True, State has elevated the importance of Arctic issues in recent years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar became the first U.S. cabinet officials to attend an Arctic Council ministerial meeting in 2011, and Secretary John Kerry has attended two in the intervening years. President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to ven- ture north of the Arctic Circle in August, when he attended the GLACIER conference on Arctic issues, organized by the Depart- ment of State, in Anchorage, Alaska. (Obama’s focus was on climate change.) The visibility is there, but what about resources and concrete actions?