As the United States prepares to assume the Arctic Council chairmanship in 2015, Arcticphiles have already begun thinking of the different issues facing the organization from the US perspective in the next couple of years. As has been pointed out elsewhere, we also kind of already forgot that Canada still hasn't handed things over just yet. Coming from the American perspective, there is certainly reason to believe that this is a huge moment for the United States on Arctic matters. The United States certainly lags behind some other Arctic states on giving proper attention to the region, and its various Arctic strategies thus far provide some (but not enough) insight into how we will respond to the challenges facing the region. At the very least, here are a few questions that the United States will want to consider as it prepares to take on leadership of the global Arctic forum:
1) Will there be a security component to the Arctic Council?
2) Will the U.S. federal government take a more assertive role in Arctic affairs or continue to let the state of Alaska run its own affairs in certain areas?
3) Can the Arctic Council serve as an effective vehicle to strengthen relations with Russia?
4) Will the permanent Arctic Council secretariat established in 2013 be given greater resources to enact more concrete programs in the Arctic under the US chairmanship?
5) Can the United States effectively respond to the challenges facing the Arctic despite domestic opposition to taking strong measures against climate change?
In the next few days I will go into more detail on each of these questions, but this may be enough to ponder for now.
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