U.S. Arctic Policy

The United States is an Arctic country and has held interests in the Arctic since it bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. The other Arctic countries are Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.

U.S. Arctic policy revolves around the following objectives:

• Protecting the Arctic environment and conserving its living resources.
• Promoting environmentally sustainable natural resource management and economic development in the region.
• Meeting post-Cold War national security and defense needs.
• Strengthening institutions for cooperation among the eight Arctic nations.
• Involving the indigenous people of the Arctic in decisions that affect them.
• Enhancing scientific monitoring and research on local, regional, and global environmental issues.

In 1991, the United States, along with the seven other Arctic countries established the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) with various working groups to address environmental protection issues in the Arctic. The members of AEPS formed the Arctic Council in 1996 to deal with environmental protection and sustainable development issues in the Arctic.

Source: U.S. State Department website