Research on History of U.S. Arctic Policy and Implication for Korean Arctic Policy

Abstract

The object of this study is to research the history of the Arctic Policy of US which is a current Arctic Council's chair-country and a leading country of global Arctic issues and to provide the its implications to Korea's future Arctic Policy. US became the Arctic country through purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, which had governed it for almost military and secure purpose until designated as the US 49th state in 1959. After that, US Presidents has announced the Arctic Strategies considering secure, environmental, economic and international aspects of Alaska: Richard Nixon's NSDM-144 in 1971, Ronald Reagon's NSDD-90 in 1983, Bill Clinton's PDD/NSC-26 in 1994, but these were rather declaratory type's presidential Directives (total 2-5 pages) than practical policies which includes concrete plans: (Wake-up phase of US Arctic Policies). Then, George W. Bush opened NSPD-66/HSPD-25 in 2009 that NSPD-66/HSPD-25 included implementation plans which composed of detailed projects by superceding six principal objectives of Bill Clinton's PDD/NSC-26 (Build-up phase of US Arctic policies). Current president Barack Obama revealed 'National Strategy for the Arctic Region' in 2013 including three strategic directions & four guiding principles and released consecutively 'Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for the Arctic Region' in 2014, 'National Strategy for the Arctic Region Implementation Report' on 2015, as an outcome report for the plans (Completion Phase of US Arctic policies). Though the historical analysis of US' Arctic policies, these paper extracted three common key-words derived from each Presidential Arctic policy: △National Security, △International cooperation, △Sustainable Environmental Stewardship. Obama's Adminstration, as the Arctic Council's new chair-country in April 2015, announced 'Chairmanship Program 2015~2017' that would be carried out during the incumbency. This Program consisted of 15 detailed projects by 4 themes. Cross-checking analysis between these 15 projects and detailed plans in Obama's implementation plans(2014) showed that what requires international cooperations, for example Arctic environmental protections, scientific monitoring, Search & Rescue etc, were mainly included detailed projects of US chairmanship program. This means that US hope to address various issue regarding Arctic environment and sustainablities with global societies (Arctic Countries and observer countries, etc) through Arctic Council. Korea as an observer country of Arctic Council, should fortify the bilateral collaboration between Korea and US for Korea's economic development by contributing current US's Arctic Policies and Chairmanship Program.