Presidential Directive Lays Out U.S. Policy Towards Rapidly Changing Arctic Region

January 13, 2009

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The White House on Monday released a Presidential Directive laying out U.S. policy towards the rapidly changing Arctic region.  With the melting of the arctic ice, a whole slew of new issues, ranging from access to new shipping lanes to extraction of natural resources such as oil and natural gas, are being created. 

With the list of nations bordering the arctic including the United States, Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, and Sweden, there is a wide range of disputes that are likely to arise in the future.  The Directive lays out some general policies to guide the U.S. approach towards these issues:

1.        Meet national security and homeland security needs relevant to the Arctic region;

2.        Protect the Arctic environment and conserve its biological resources;

3.        Ensure that natural resource management and economic development in the region are environmentally sustainable;

4.        Strengthen institutions for cooperation among the eight Arctic nations (the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, and Sweden);

5.        Involve the Arctic’s indigenous communities in decisions that affect them; and

6.        Enhance scientific monitoring and research into local, regional, and global environmental issues.

The Directive notes that the U.S. should “assert a more active and influential national presence to protect its Arctic interests and to project sea power throughout the region.”

And it reiterates the position that the U.S. has the right of navigation through the Northwest Passage and along the Northern Sea Route, which are seeing increasing commercial traffic due to melting ice.

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