The Change in the Arctic’s Strategic Importance During the Cold War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35926/HDR.2025.2.3Kulcsszavak:
Arctic, Greenland, Cold War, nuclear defence, USAAbsztrakt
Today, Trump’s Greenland policy has brought the (potential) strategic importance of the Arctic in the East-West confrontation to the fore. However, this is not unprecedented, as there were already a number of strategic visions for the region during the Cold War. This paper examines the role of the Arctic in Cold War missile defence and nuclear plans and theories. The paper discusses how strategic changes have affected military presence in the Arctic during the Cold War, primarily from the US perspective, and what lessons can be identified from this today. It concludes that the US and NATO Arctic presence during the Cold War was strongly influenced by (nuclear) theoretical innovations, strategic changes, and military technological developments. As for NATO, the study also draws attention to how, at the conceptual level, the importance of the Arctic region has changed and evolved, as well as how it has become an operational arena in its own right.
Hivatkozások
• Agreement relating to the Defence of Greenland, signed at Washington, April 9th, 1941, and Exchange of Notes relating thereto. World Legal Information Institute. http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/treaties/LNTSer/1941/38.pdf (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Allard, Dean C.: Strategic views of the US Navy and NATO on the Northern Flank, 1917-1991. The Northern Mariner, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2001), 11–24.
• Archer, Clive: The United States Defence Areas in Greenland. Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1988), 123–144. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45083662 (Downloaded: 17/10/2025)
• Archer, Clive: Greenland, US Bases and Missile Defence: New Two-Level Negotiations? Cooperation and Conflict, 38, No. 2 (2003), 125–147.
• Åtland, Kristian: The European Arctic after the Cold War: how can we analyze it in terms of security? FFI Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, 2007. https://www.nb.no/maken/item/URN:NBN:no-nb_pliktmonografi_000023730 (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Brodie, Bernard: Strategy in the Missile Age. Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1959.
• Brosio, Manlio: External Reinforcements for the Flanks. North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1967. https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/nato-archives-online/3/d/4/3d440c514544a152606c9314c073dffe8a6a15c82fe483315770f08cc9b2b548/PO_67_300_ENG_NHQL621322.pdf (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Defense of Greenland: Agreement Between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark, April 27, 1951, Yale Law School – Lillian Goldman Law Library. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp#art3 (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Doel, Ronald E. – Friedman, Robert Marc – Lajus, Julia – Sörlin, Sverker – Wrakberg, Urban: Strategic Arctic science: national interests in building natural knowledge – interwar era through the Cold War. Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 44, 2014, 60–80.
• Dunbar, M. J.: Greenland during and since the Second World War. International Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1950), 121–140. (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Dunn, David H.: ICBM Vulnerability: The Development of an Issue. In: The Politics of Threat. Southampton Studies in International Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1997.
• Dyndal, Gjert Lage: How the High North became Central in NATO Strategy: Revelations from the NATO Archives. Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4 (2011), 557–585.
• Eger, Christopher: Warship Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025: Frozen Comanche. laststandonzombieisland, 2025. https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2025/01/08/warship-wednesday-jan-8-2025-frozencomanche/ (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Haraldsen, Johan C.: NATO Expansion and Norway, Department of West European Studies, Indiana University, 1997. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA334343.pdf (Downloaded: 13/08/2025)
• Harris, Stephen: Early-Warning Radar. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2006. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/early-warning-radar (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Historic American Engineering Record, Creator et al.: Clear Air Force Station, Ballistic Missile Early Warning System Site II, One mile west of mile marker 293.5 on Parks Highway, 5 miles southwest of Anderson, Anderson, Denali Borough, AK. Drawings from Survey HAER AK-30-A, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ak0486.sheet/?sp=2&st=image (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Huebert, Rob: A new Cold War in the Arctic?! The old one never ended! Arctic Yearbook 2019, 2019. https://arcticyearbook.com/arctic-yearbook/2019/2019-commentaries/325-a-new-cold-warin-the-arctic-the-old-one-never-ended (Downloaded: 06/06/2025)
• Memorandum of Discussion at the 384th Meeting of the National Security Council. Office of the Historian, 1958. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v03/d36 (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• North Atlantic Council: Basic Assumptions for an Assessment of the Long-Term Threat to NATO. 1962. https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/nato-archives-online/b/e/4/be45a00c86ead53fbe383fe8e711852c8ea6d83bfe1ce8d18bc7db7756177997/C-M_62_79_ENG_NHQL688132.pdf (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• North Atlantic Military Committee: Memorandum for the Defence Planning Committee – A Concept for External Reinforcement of the Flanks. MCM-23-68, 1968. https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/nato-archives-online/7/1/d/71d5efe4876e44e2b754d2ab623d77b1469e894549ae620baff166ecc9de195d/MCM-0023-1968_ENG_PDP.pdf (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• North Atlantic Military Committee: Military Decision on MC 14/3 – A Report by the Military Committee to the Defense Planning Committee on Overall Strategic Concept for the Defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Area. 1967. https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/natoarchives-online/f/c/c/fccfd1341d21499e09614306f1d40a944927f0312a71bc54ae96d3f1b15e64ab/MC_0014_3_MILDEC_ENG_PDP.pdf (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Norway and NATO. [no year] https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_162353.htm (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Orbaiceta, Gonzalo Vázquez: The Resurgence of the GIUK Gap’s Strategic Importance. Opinion Paper, IEEE, 49/2023. https://www.defensa.gob.es/documents/2073105/2077230/The+Resurgence+of+the+GIUK+Gap%C2%B4s+Strategic+Importance.pdf/02df112c-06bb-4550-04ca-72d67718d006?t=1717491065311 (Downloaded: 31/05/2025)
• Roman, Peter J.: Eisenhower and the Missile Gap. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1995.
• Stone, J. Craig: The Economic Benefits of North Warning System Modernization. Defence and Peace Economics, Vol. 35, No. 5 (Special Issue, 2024), 557–576.
• The GIUK Gap’s strategic significance. IISS, Strategic Comments, Vol. 25, 2019.
• Weiss, Erik D.: Cold War Under the Ice: The Army’s Bid for a Long-Range Nuclear Role, 1959–1963. Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2001), 31–58.
