The militarization of the Arctic to 1990

Abstract

This chapter charts the militarization of the Arctic-the mobilization of the region for military purposes-as it unfolded across time and space to 1990. This process was dictated by geography and shaped by technology. The intersection of the two transformed the Arctic from a, in the words of Ostreng, “military vacuum prior to World War II, to a military flank in the 1950-1970 period, and a military front in the 1980s.” The chapter begins with an examination of the historic role of military forces in the Arctic, largely rooted in exploration and colonial expansion, before exploring the technological and geopolitical developments that led some strategists and polar experts to militarize the geography of the Arctic in the early twentieth century. We then explore the first steps toward militarization that marked the interwar Soviet Arctic, before reviewing the rapid escalation and intensification of the process during the Second World War and Cold War. During this period, the militarization of the Arctic served as both a response to global geopolitical tensions and as a source of intensified tensions. The military activities and developments that enabled and flowed out of this process irrevocably changed the region: militarily and politically, but also socially, culturally, and environmentally.