United States Arctic Interests: The 1980s and 1990sW.E. Westermeyer, K.M. Shusterich Elliot L. Richardson The United States is finally awakening to the fact that it has a major stake in the future of the Arctic. Recognition of the national importance of the Arctic has been slow in coming despite the resource wealth that Arctic Alaska has thus far yielded. Although the United States has had strategic interests in the Arctic since World War II and active oil and gas interests there since the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, its interest in the Arctic has been low in comparison with that of its Arctic neighbors, Canada and the Soviet Union. What has been described by some as an attitude of neglect toward the Arctic is now changing. The notion of change has become central in most current discussions about the future of the Arctic. It is apparent that the Arctic region is entering a period of greatly accelerated economic, social, strategic, and is political change. The driving force behind the changes taking place resource development activity, and although the present scale of this activity is not inconsequential, it is small in comparison to its projected growth in the next two decades. In short, the Arctic is about to come alive. However, knowledge of the Arctic and experience in the Arctic is comparatively limited. Moreover, competing interests and differing val ues exist among national groups and between countries in the Arctic, just as they do in the lower latitudes. |
Contents
Policy Perspectives | 19 |
Arctic Alaska | 59 |
Living Resources | 75 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
United States Arctic Interests: The 1980s and 1990s W.E. Westermeyer,K.M. Shusterich Limited preview - 2012 |
United States Arctic Interests: The 1980s and 1990s W.E. Westermeyer,K.M. Shusterich No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
activities ANGTS Arctic Alaska Arctic Ocean Arctic oil Arctic policy Arctic research Arctic resource conflicts Arctic science areas barrels Barrow Beaufort Sea Bering Sea Bering Strait boundary bowhead whale Brooks Range Canada caribou Chukchi Sea Circumpolar claims Coast coastal commercial continental shelf Convention cooperation crude oil defense deposits drilling economic ecosystems energy environment environmental estimated exploration federal government fish Greenland habitat harvest hunting hydrocarbon Ibid icebreaking impacts important industry interest Inuit Inuit Circumpolar Conference Inupiat Island issues jurisdiction land leasing living resources major Management marine mammals markets ment million mineral missile Native natural gas North Slope Borough northern Alaska Northwest Passage offshore oil and gas operations percent Petroleum planning Polar political pollution potential production protection Prudhoe Bay region resource development revenues sector Soviet Union strategic submarine subsistence Svalbard tankers tion transportation systems Treaty tundra United States Arctic waters wildlife zone