The United States is often forgotten as an Arctic nation, due not only to the remoteness of the American Arctic, but also the dereliction of a coherent and consistent foreign policy in the region. The only steady action from administration to administration has been neglect.
The United States is an Arctic nation, but a small one
America is unlike most other northern powers in many ways, namely that an infinitesimally small portion of the American population (19,000 people, or 0.00006%) lives within the Arctic Circle, and we do not rely on the northernmost parts of our nation for a vast amount of resources like oil the way other countries (mainly Russia) do.
However, that does not excuse or rationalize the lack of well-planned policy in one of the last uncharted and unexplored regions on Earth. The United States exists, in part, due to its never-ending quest to explore and discover the harshest and most-uncharted places known to man. It is distinctly un-American to abandon that in favor of a sedentary and unimaginative Arctic policy.
America was built on the idea of exploration and a better future
This is not to blame those who have been working on this policy for years — There are a great number of scientists, researchers, and foreign policy experts that work diligently every day to secure a better future for Arctic-Americans, and all Arctic citizens. It is a much larger indictment of the appointee-class in Washington who refuse to dream big, or to listen to their own experts, to craft an intelligible policy in the High North.
The future of the Arctic rests on imaginative, restorative, and forward-thinking policy; executed in-tandem with dependable relationships alongside our Arctic partners. America, as a country, was founded on idealistic and visionary ideals — We would be remiss not to advocate for the implication of those same principles in the North.