ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the nature of the Arctic-specific military investments that the five Arctic coastal states have made. It examines in some detail what investments the five Arctic littoral states have made or plan to make in their Arctic military capabilities. US policy towards the Arctic during the Cold War was primarily strategic and military in nature. The end of the Cold War, the break-up of the Soviet Union and rapid decay of Russian military strength in the Arctic served to highlight US non-military engagement. In the early years of the Cold War, Greenland's role as a refuelling stop, or 'stepping stone', for US bombers made it militarily important. The Arctic's geopolitical significance in security and defence terms is much lower today than during the Cold War. While Canada has not questioned NATO's collective defence role in the Arctic, it has opposed NATO taking a role in relation to the emerging societal security challe.
