East Asia and the Arctic: Alaskan and American Perspectives

East Asia-Arctic Paper No. 4

December 3, 2013

This paper concerns the US view of East Asian nations’ involvement in the Arctic, emphasizing the perspective of Alaska, the only US Arctic state. It treats six different areas of US/Alaska policy: US national strategy for the Arctic; oil and gas exploration and development; marine transportation; fisheries; investment in infrastructure; and governance. The study finds few differences between the positions of Alaska and the United States, notwithstanding often-hostile rhetoric from leaders in the United States’ farthest north frontier. 

Part of Series

East Asia-Arctic Relations: Boundary, Security and International Politics

This series of six papers provides intensive analysis and discussion of historic, contemporary and future developments in East Asia-Arctic relations, from a group of leading experts from Japan, China, South Korea, the United States and Canada, working in the fields of Arctic sovereignty and international relations.

About the Author

Jerry McBeath trained at the University of Chicago (A.B., 1963; A.M., 1964) and at the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., 1970).