Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies holds soft opening
The Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage held a soft opening on August 11, 2022, with speeches from both Alaskan Senators, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, among others. The event was in recognition of the center reaching “initial operating capacity.” The center is projected to achieve full operational capacity on 1 July, 2023.
“Today’s opening ceremony is a public acknowledgement by the Stevens Center and our Department of Defense leadership of the importance of the combined team effort, which is building capacity in Arctic and Climate Security programs and activities to provide soft power compliment to the hard power investments the United States is making in and across the Arctic in support of our national interests in and across the region and in collaboration with our allies and partners,” said Senior Advisor for Arctic Security Affairs, Randy “Church” Kee, a retired Major General from the Air Force.
Following a land blessing from Chief Aaron Leggett of the Native Village of Eklutna – the Arctic Indigenous Community was mentioned as a key stakeholder in the process – there were short remarks by nine delegates from both the uniformed and civilian sides of the Department of Defense, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and the Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, Kevin Meyer.
The speeches were mostly consistent in their messaging, reiterating a number of DoD talking points: Climate change is creating opportunities and vulnerabilities; competitor countries are investing in the region and so should we; we want the Arctic to remain peaceful, stable, and cooperative. Others were somewhat more adversarial, however. “If Russia wants to come over, bring it on,” said Meyer.
Air Force Lieutenant General David Krumm, Commander of Alaska Command, the Alaska
NORAD region, and the 11th Air Force, stressed that “Arctic diplomacy is more important than ever,” and Senator Murkowski emphasized her efforts to get an Arctic Ambassador.
USCG Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan noted how increasing maritime access to the Arctic puts pressure “on the communities and the safety and security of the waters off of the state of Alaska.”
Jim Hursch, Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, who shared a personal anecdote about a trip to Greenland and how the “dangers of climate change were already very apparent in the 1990s as hangar floors at the base were sinking into the melting permafrost” gave the clearest indication of the expanding definition of security. “Defense security encompasses much more than just protecting one’s land. The core of defense security is creating the unequivocal feeling that one’s people feel secure, whether that is protecting their food supply, maritime throughways, or cyber domains,”
he said.
Following the remarks, was a ceremonial hanging of an “Open for Business” sign by eight VIPs including Catherine Stevens, widow of the late Senator Ted Stevens.
The Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies is now the sixth regional center run by the DoD’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The other centers are focused on Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Western Hemisphere, Africa and Near EastSouth Asia. It will be housed in a decommissioned elementary school on JBER. In the plan to Congress to establish the Center, its four missions were stated as being: “Advance Arctic awareness, both among partners and within the increasingly professionalized field of U.S. Arctic service; Advance DOD Arctic priorities; Reinforce the rules-based order in the Arctic; and in keeping with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s priorities and the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, address the impacts of climate change in the region.”