Treat NATO as an Arctic alliance
What the document says“The next Administration should embrace the view that NATO must acknowledge that it is, in part, an Arctic alliance.”
The chapter notes that with Finland and Sweden joining, every Arctic nation except Russia will be a NATO member, and says NATO has been slow to see the Arctic as a theatre it must defend. It asks that Arctic shipping lanes remain open to all commercial traffic and free of onerous fees, and says the north star of American Arctic policy should be national sovereignty.
What the document actually says“The next Administration should embrace the view that NATO must acknowledge that it is, in part, an Arctic alliance.”
The next team should say NATO is partly an Arctic alliance.
The Arctic is the icy sea at the top of the world. Russia has built bases there. The book says NATO should treat it as ground to defend.
Restoring America's Maritime Dominance
2025-04-09 · 90 FR 15635
Section 18 of Executive Order 14269 directs the Secretary of Defense, with the Secretary of Transportation, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commandant of the Coast Guard, to develop within 90 days a strategy to secure arctic waterways and enable American prosperity in the face of evolving arctic security challenges. It treats the Arctic as a theater needing a defense strategy, which is the neglect the chapter describes, and it is aimed at keeping those waterways usable. NATO has no part in it. The order builds a single national strategy inside a maritime policy order, says nothing about the alliance acknowledging an Arctic role, and does not address commercial access to Arctic shipping lanes or the fees the chapter raises.
The order calls for a plan to guard the far north sea lanes. That treats the region as one that needs defense, as the chapter urged. But the plan is national, and the alliance the chapter named has no part in it. Shipping access and fees are not covered.