What is the Arctic to the United States? Status anxiety, ontological security, and the evolution of US Arctic policy
Journal: Polar Record
Year: 2025

Abstract The United States has long been a global power deeply entangled in regions like Europe and the Middle East, where its foreign policy has been anchored in clear ontological scripts – defender of democracy, bulwark against terrorism, guarantor of order. In contrast, the Arctic has historically lacked this symbolic and strategic integration into US identity. Despite its formal status as an Arctic state since the 1867 purchase of Alaska, the region has remained ontologically peripheral to U