Taking Greenland won't fix the US's problems in the Arctic, experts say

President Donald Trump's repeated calls to acquire Greenland, reiterated astir precocious astatine a NATO acme past period successful Turkey, person thrust the Arctic into the world governmental spotlight.

The bigger challenge, they say, isn't acquiring much Arctic territory. It's that the US has spent decades underinvesting successful the Arctic presence it already has.

"The conception that we would return Greenland and someway amended it is simply a fallacy," Kenneth Rosen, a journalist and writer of the book "Polar War," told Business Insider. "We person not done that successful Alaska."

The situation of securing the US's Arctic foothold has go much urgent arsenic the Arctic itself changes. "The Arctic is nary longer reliably frozen," Klaus Dodds, a professor of geopolitics astatine Royal Holloway, University of London, told Business Insider past year.

As shrinking oversea crystal opens caller shipping routes and entree to power and captious minerals, the region has go progressively important to world security, Dodds said.

Russia began rebuilding its Arctic presence astir 2 decades ago, reopening Cold War-era accommodation and investing successful year-round infrastructure.

The US has mostly moved successful the other direction

During World War II, the US built astir 300 subject installations crossed Alaska, galore of which remained progressive passim the Cold War. Many person since been abandoned aliases closed, leaving down deteriorating runways, overgrown buildings, and quiet airfields.

Today, the only progressive US subject installations successful the Aleutian Islands, a concatenation stretching southwest from mainland Alaska toward Russia, are Eareckson Air Station and a Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit astatine Dutch Harbor. Beyond that, the Coast Guard maintains a constricted rotational beingness pinch patrol cutters, sometimes pinch only 1 cutter astatine a time.

"One information cutter successful the Bering Sea for each of Alaska is simply a joke," Rosen told Business Insider successful February for an section of its video bid "View from Above."

Climate alteration is making those shortcomings harder to ignore. Thawing permafrost is destabilizing buildings and runways that were constructed connected permanently stiff ground, putting further strain connected aging subject infrastructure.

"We person not built retired capable resources moreover to protect the communities that unrecorded successful these areas of our country," Rosen added.

Last year, the Trump management directed important attraction and backing toward Alaska, signing an executive bid to accelerate power and captious mineral improvement while backing a astir $25 billion Coast Guard modernization package that includes backing for 17 caller icebreakers, $4.3 cardinal for Polar Security Cutters, $3.5 cardinal for Arctic Security Cutters, and plans to guidelines the first 2 caller Arctic cutters successful Alaska.

It's a measurement successful the correct guidance toward regaining the US's Arctic foothold. However, the spread remains wide, Rosen said.

Russia operates 42 icebreakers, including 13 dense vessels tin of year-round operations. The US, by comparison, is only opening to grow infrastructure specified arsenic the deepwater larboard astatine Nome. Although the Coast Guard has begun increasing its polar fleet, it still relies connected a azygous operational dense icebreaker, the Polar Star.

The US already has entree to Greenland

While successive administrations person viewed the Arctic arsenic strategically important, Trump has gone further by arguing that the US should get Greenland, citing concerns astir Russian and Chinese activity.

However, the US already enjoys extended subject entree to the land nether a 1951 defense statement pinch the Kingdom of Denmark.

"If we want to grow our subject presence, we tin do that," Rosen said. "Greenland already offers the US everything it needs for nationalist security."

The question, he said, is why Washington has grounded for decades to make greater usage of those existing arrangements.

During World War II and the Cold War, the US operated astir 20 subject installations crossed the island. Today, only Pituffik Space Base remains, and the installation has agelong suffered from underinvestment, Rosen said.

Once location to astir 10,000 group during the Cold War, the guidelines now has a imperishable organization of astir 650 arsenic its ngo has shifted toward rocket informing and abstraction surveillance.

For Rosen, the business successful Greenland reinforces alternatively than undermines his argument. If the US has not afloat invested successful the Arctic territory and subject infrastructure it already controls, past acquiring much territory won't lick the underlying problem.

"It besides fundamentally underscores the conception that Washington has fixed up connected adaptive ambiance policies, favoring the potential gains from a warming planet," Rosen told Business Insider.

Dodds echoed the thought that focusing excessively narrowly connected Greenland risks obscuring the broader strategical picture.

America's Arctic strategy has different unsighted spot

Washington has besides excessively often sidelined Indigenous communities that person lived successful the Arctic for generations, Rosen said, contempt their heavy knowledge of operating successful 1 of the world's harshest environments that could amended emergency response, logistics, and semipermanent operations.

"We request to pass pinch these communities," he said. "There are truthful galore basal things that are conscionable absent successful the Arctic erstwhile it comes to the US presence."

While auditing a warfare assemblage course, Rosen recalled overhearing active-duty subject unit laughter erstwhile instructors urged them to amended their skiing skills for Arctic operations. Instead, they joked, they could conscionable propulsion grenades astatine the snowfall instead.

"That's a wholly negligent measurement of looking astatine the existent strategical assets that travel pinch operating successful the Arctic," Rosen said.

Some Alaska Native communities projected a elemental solution to Rosen: Leave down instrumentality specified arsenic generators and vehicles aft subject exercises truthful residents could usage them betwixt deployments while giving the subject pre-positioned resources for early missions.

To Rosen, rebuilding America's Arctic beingness requires much than ports, icebreakers, and subject bases. It besides intends treating the group who already unrecorded location arsenic partners alternatively than an afterthought.

"This thought that we request exert unit without practice is wholly unsustainable," Rosen said.