Reclaiming Arcticness: The writing of an Arctic chapter in the US autobiography

US Arctic policy has shifted dramatically from regarding the Arctic region as a non- subject for American security policy to a pronounced focus on Arctic security dynamics. The article argues that this reorientation is not only a reaction to (Russian) strategic developments in the Arctic. Key to understanding how and why this policy change is happening now is the US self- understanding as superpower, and how this identity is being challenged in an Arctic context by designated strategic competitor China. By employing insights from Ontological Security Studies, the article finds that narratives of ‘distance and proximity’ and ‘continuity and rupture’ are key to how the national security community instantiates this policy shift. The article contributes a reading of US Arctic policy as a quest for the US to be(come) assured of its own Arcticness. This effort points at least as much inwards as outwards; to be ontologically secure in the Arctic, the US needs to be sufficiently convinced of its own Arcticness.