🇺🇸 🇷🇺 🌐 Hyperborean Geostrategic Initiatives

🔶️ TGP: A few months back, the U.S. released the National Strategy for the Arctic Region (NSAR), a ten-year agenda updating its 2013 predecessor. Alongside this, the Administration brought out the Implementation Plan for the NSAR (NSARIP), outlining over 30 objectives and 200 actions. President Biden reiterated the U.S. commitment to deepen cooperation with Arctic allies and partners, particularly in managing risks related to militarization and unintended conflicts against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions with Russia and China. The United States continues to prioritize collaboration in the Arctic, building on its role in developing governance architecture.

🔶️ In short, the Arctic is set to witness new geopolitical shifts, worsened by the prolonged war in Ukraine. The U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project indicate a closely packed contest of economic and security interests in the region. The deepening collaboration between Russia and China in the Arctic may further disrupt the situation. With Finland and Sweden joining NATO, the U.S. bolsters its Arctic strategy and the High North has become a major terrain for strategic maneuverings.

🔶️ NATO's Arctic Command: A Case for the Expansion of NATO’s Mission in the High North - The alliance has directed increasing attention to the North Pole with joint military exercises such as Trident Juncture in 2018 and a Norwegian-sponsored operation in 2022, Cold Response. The addition of Sweden and Finland will only bolster the resources NATO has to dedicate to the Arctic issue. Danoy and Maddox, authors of a recent article compiled for NATOs 20/2020 review, discuss further expansion of the NATO footprint in the Arctic.

🔶️ US Claims Huge Chunk of Arctic Seabed Amid Strategic Push for Resources - The so-called Extended Continental Shelf covers about 1 million square kilometers (386,100 square miles), predominantly in the Arctic and Bering Sea, an area of increasing strategic importance where Canada and Russia also have claims. The US has also declared the shelf’s boundaries in the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.

🔶️ Houthis’ Red Sea blockade makes Northern Sea Route attractive to Global Shipping - The 5,600 km Northern Sea Route is the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia, and can shave 8,000 km or more of distance, and 40-60 percent in time, off shipments, compared to traditional Europe-Asia routes through the presently troubled waters in the Middle East.

🔶️ Over 90 percent of all Europe-Asia traffic flows through cables in the Red Sea. - The Far North Fiber project is seeking to offer another option — a 14,500 kilometer cable linking Europe, North America and Asia.