OPINION: 40 years of innovation in Arctic research

What is the American Arctic, and what’s its role in our national identity? What kind of research is essential to meet the needs of Arctic communities, and the health and well-being of their people? What kind of research meets the national needs of our military, our economy, and our international relations? What kind of research should be done in partnership with other nations, such as on U.S. fish stocks that straddle with Canada and Russia? What kind of investments do we need in icebreakers, satellites, remote scientific research stations to collect data for researchers and to inform policymakers?

Until 1984, when President Ronald Reagan signed the Arctic Research and Policy Act, or ARPA, into law, the first major piece of legislation sponsored by Alaska’s then-first-term Sen. Frank Murkowski, America had not asked — or answered — these questions in a comprehensive manner.

Today we can see the difference that’s been made by that Act, the law which created the US Arctic Research Commission, aka USARC, the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, or IARPC, and legally defined the geographic extent of the U.S. Arctic region as you can see in these maps. The law has had a huge impact on U.S. Arctic research, and as a result, what is understood about the increasingly accessible Arctic Ocean, the changing Arctic climate, the complexity of the environmental conditions, Indigenous peoples, their cultures, and adapting communities, as well as the Arctic’s importance to the world.

Our nation’s long-running Arctic research programs in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and the U.S. Geological Survey, or USGS, provided the essential data to enable America to recently claim new rights to an offshore land area larger than two Californias. The law has added momentum to efforts to build new, powerful icebreakers and to increase our Arctic presence as Russia and China increase theirs. It laid the groundwork for safe shipping and resource development in the Arctic by identifying methods to reduce risk. It helped evolve our understanding of continental drift, and the plate tectonic evoluation of the Arctic Ocean basin. Arctic health research is informing policy to improve health outcomes and to reduce disparities. Forty years of purposeful, coordinated U.S. Arctic effort, involving national resources, partners across the Arctic region, and Alaskans is something to celebrate and take pride in.

The 1984 law engaged citizens with experience in Arctic research and exploration to advise presidents, cabinet, and congressional leaders on goals for the U.S. Arctic research program. It also elevated the attention and investment in financial support for Arctic research, which had previously enjoyed only a fraction of support compared to the U.S. Antarctic Research Program.

In addition to the USARC, a citizen panel appointed directly by the president, ARPA created a federal interagency group, of over 16 agencies, to take the commission’s goals and put them into action, through IARPC, which is staffed at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP. ARPA broke down bureaucratic “silos,” and brought essential cooperation among agencies like the National Science Foundation, the Coast Guard, NOAA and NASA, the Department of Defense, Interior agencies, such as USGS and many others, including newer additions since 1984, such as the Denali Commission, which focuses exclusively on Alaska, the Marine Mammal Commission, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The law empowers the commission to compare Arctic research budgets to Arctic research plans, and to report directly to Congress on what’s needed.

The commission has also worked with the State Department to foster international cooperation in Arctic research. For example, in 2016, the commission organized and helped conduct the inaugural, biennial Arctic Science Ministerial meeting, on behalf of the White House. This meeting involved senior officials from over two dozen nations and from Arctic Indigenous peoples’ organizations. The USARC has supported and helped shape the agendas of international partnerships like the 2007-09 International Polar Year, and the creation of the International Arctic Research Center, a U.S.-Japan initiative at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Much of the policy work of the international Arctic Council, formed a decade after ARPA, is informed by coordinated Arctic research and monitoring.

The USARC also had a leading role in the drafting and formal adoption of the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Science Cooperation in 2017, for which USARC continues to serve as our nation’s “competent national authority.” The agreement facilitates access by scientists of the eight Arctic governments to Arctic areas that each government has identified, including entry and exit of persons, equipment, and materials; access to research infrastructure and facilities; and access to data. The agreement also calls for the parties to promote education, career development, and training opportunities, and encourages activities associated with traditional and local knowledge.

Notably, ARPA defines the U.S. Arctic to include most of Alaska north and west of the Alaska Range, and out to the tip of the Aleutians, not just the area north of the Arctic Circle. For the past 40 years, this legal definition has delineated the geographic region for the U.S. Arctic research, both in Alaska and in international areas.

As USARC commissioners and chairs under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, and as close advisers since then, we led bipartisan efforts to build the U.S. Arctic research program. Our predecessors and successors under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden did the same. We worked with White House and cabinet leaders, testified to Congress, and encouraged universities and independent institutions to advance the Arctic research enterprise.

With encouragement from the USARC, President Clinton’s 1994 national policy on the Arctic region was updated by President G.W. Bush to the U.S. National Policy on the Arctic Region (NSPD66/HSPD-25) in January 2009. Shortly thereafter, in a nonpartisan manner, that policy was reaffirmed, without change, in the early days of the Obama administration. This new policy was put into action through a National Strategy for the Arctic Region, released in 2013, and refreshed in 2022, along with associated implementation plans, that remain current. This White House leadership has fostered closer coordination of federal efforts on not only Arctic research, but in advancing all U.S. interests in the Arctic region.

Today, we can point to robust Arctic research programs, which have built capacity for our nation with hardware — ice-strengthened ships, undersea and satellite sensors, remote research stations — and human capital, including strong Arctic research programs funded to at least a total of $500 million per year, by 18 federal agencies at universities, research centers, and in government and other programs across the nation.

Most importantly, we have helped policy makers at the tribal, local, state, national and international level use Arctic research to advance their goals and objectives. Our giant claims to seafloor regions in the Extended Continental Shelf, made last December, were possible after more than 25 years of mapping that the U.S. Arctic Research Commission brought directly to Congress. Our understanding of the causes of climate change — and potential solutions — has improved because the commission pushed to bring Arctic research and national climate research closer together. There are much larger research programs and trials on health disparities in the Arctic, from high suicide and depression rates to chronic diseases. We have been mapping Alaska, inshore and offshore. We have established and implemented methods for civil scientists to use declassified data from national technical means, classified sensors controlled by the military or the intelligence community. Between the U.S. and other Arctic nations, research collaboration is strong, as was demonstrated by a recent meeting between the USARC and Polar Knowledge Canada. Someday, we hope Russia can return to the fold.

The Arctic is special to our nation in many ways. Arctic residents help feed, fuel, provision, protect, connect and inspire the world. Access to the Arctic begins first with knowledge. We can’t maintain biodiversity, productive oceans, stable climate, sustainable economic development and healthy Arctic communities without credible knowledge. The legacy of the 1984 ARPA is that the U.S. can pursue its goals in the Arctic, as varied as they may be, with a good and growing basis of knowledge and understanding.

Fran Ulmer, a Democrat, served as elected lieutenant governor of Alaska from 1994-2002, and presidentially designated chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission from 2011-2020. Mead Treadwell, a Republican, served as commissioner on the U.S. Arctic Research Commission from 2001-2010, presidentially designated chair from 2006-2010, and elected lieutenant governor of Alaska, 2010-2014. Both authors have had active roles in Arctic research, exploration and education before and after their service on the Commission.

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