“The Damn Thing Melted”: Arctic Security in the Blue-Water Era

Image courtesy of US Department of Defense/Flickr.

This article was originally published by the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) on 26 April 2018.

When Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer told the media last week that “the damn thing melted,” he wasn’t talking about an ice cream cone. As the Arctic faces unprecedented levels of open water, Spencer and other naval leaders recently testified to Congress about the U.S. Navy’s strategy, which is changing as quickly as the Arctic itself.