The melting Arctic gets a U.S. ambassador and an influx of military cash

The Arctic is melting — and that's setting off a geopolitical rivalry for the region's once inaccessible resources and shipping routes. In response, the U.S. will soon see its first ambassador-at-large for the Arctic Region; the Biden administration last month nominated Mike Sfraga to the position.

"What we're seeing now is something that is just so dramatic." Sfraga told students at Duke University last year. "[T]he Arctic has warmed nearly four times the global average."

While indigenous communities have long thrived in communion with the land there, nation states haven't had much presence in the northern latitudes because it hasn't been ripe for exploitation. Until sea ice began rapidly receding, oil, gas, shipping and minerals were all under frigid lock and key.

But with dwindling sea ice, tapping the region's resources is becoming more feasible. And in conjunction with