A section of the American strategic elites seems to think so. Vital for U.S. homeland defense, the North American Arctic region hosts aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning capabilities for the binational U.S.-Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The North American Arctic region is also integral to the execution of Indo-Pacific operations, as the northern flank for projecting military force from the U.S. homeland to that region. Geographically, the European Arctic region comprises the Arctic territory of NATO Allies Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, as well as Russia’s Kola Peninsula. The Russian Arctic Strategy, 2020, explains why the region’s largest state (Russia) should improve its infrastructure and deploy there.