BREAKING THE ICE: THE MILITARY AND ARCTIC POPULATIONS
Posted by Michele Devlin
December 15, 2022
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third of a series of three articles coming from the 2022 Kingston Conference on International Security, “International Competition in the High North,” co-sponsored by the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute in conjunction with three Canadian partners.
For thousands of years, the circumpolar world has been one of the most remote and least populated regions on earth.
The Arctic is warming four times faster than any other region, while glaciers are receding, permafrost is melting, and sea ice is retreating at a dramatic pace. These climatic changes are widely recognized, including by military leaders who are pondering the strategic implications for competition with Russia and China. But equally momentous changes in the human domain of the Arctic are largely being overlooked. As special operations forces are urgently relearning the fundamentals of operating in the region, they must also gain competence in environmental security. How are the human populations of the circumpolar North evolving with climate change, what are the security dynamics of these trends, and how can special operations forces connect with new diverse populations, particularly those in northern Alaska as partners in a warming Arctic?
For thousands of years, the circumpolar world has been one of the most remote and least populated regions on earth. Even today, only four million persons live above the Arctic Circle. Approximately one in ten Arctic residents is indigenous, with more than 90 different languages spoken in the northern polar region. As the Arctic warms, however, the region will, and already is, experiencing several regional population trends with military implications.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/breaking-the-ice/
