Beneath the Ice: How the U.S. Navy is Redefining Arctic Deterrence
USS Hampton submarine at North Pole, circa 2004
Information
We publish two in-depth articles about the Arctic every weekend, covering the latest developments, challenges, and insights from this rapidly changing region.
Why care about the Arctic?
The Arctic is rapidly gaining global significance due to its vast untapped natural resources, new shipping routes emerging from melting ice, and strategic geopolitical value. As climate change accelerates Arctic transformation, nations and industries are increasingly focused on access, environmental stewardship, and security in the region, making it a critical arena for economic opportunity and international cooperation in the years ahead.
Arcitc Resources
The Arctic holds an estimated 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil and about 30% of its undiscovered natural gas, making it one of the planet’s most resource-rich regions. Beyond hydrocarbons, the area is also rich in minerals such as nickel, copper, zinc, and rare earth elements, as well as vast fisheries. However, exact quantities remain uncertain due to the region’s challenging environment and limited exploration.
Enviromental Concerns
The Arctic faces several serious environmental concerns. Rapid warming is causing ice melt and permafrost thaw, disrupting fragile ecosystems and threatening wildlife like polar bears and seals. Melting ice also contributes to global sea level rise. Increased shipping and resource extraction risk pollution and habitat destruction. Additionally, thawing permafrost releases greenhouse gases like methane, which further accelerate climate change. These challenges threaten both the natural environment and the Indigenous communities that depend on it.
The Arctic’s Legal Frontier: Challenges in Regulating Emerging Routes and Resources
The Arctic, once largely ignored in the global legal imagination, now pulses at the center of geopolitical and environmental transformation. Its ice is retreating at a breathtaking pace, creating new maritime corridors, unlocking vast reserves of untapped resources, and setting off a scramble for influence, access, and control. Yet even as governments and corporations accelerate their Arctic ambitions, the frameworks meant to regulate such developments remain fractured, incomplete, and increasingly outmatched. Nowhere is this more evident than in the realms of resource extraction and shipping, where the convergence of environmental fragility, rising commercial interest, and legal ambiguity has exposed deep governance gaps that threaten to undermine regional stability and ecological integrity alike.