Yes, that's a good question.
The United States is really not aware, as I say, of itself as an Arctic country. The Alaskans themselves feel cut off from the lower 40, and there is just a lack of connection to the Arctic—until lately. Things are starting to change now.
What actually changed is that there has been all this talk about climate change and melting of the ice. That really went nowhere with the U.S. government until the Russians planted the flag at the pole. At that time, I am told, the telephone began to ring off the wall in the U.S. Coast Guard, because the coast guard are the ones who know about the Arctic. Everybody—other departments in the U.S. government—started phoning to ask what was going on. It is the Russians who have triggered the U.S. strategic interest in the Arctic in a new way, and I think that is probably going to persist.
The U.S. has an Arctic strategy paper that came out in January. It was one of the last statements of the Bush administration. I believe the U.S. government now is working on a further road map as to where they go next, beyond the strategy statement that came out of the old administration. I should think they'll be tracking Russia very carefully.
I would think the Russians are going in various ways to keep stimulating the American interest. There is to be a parachute drop of Russian special forces on the North Pole next year. I can tell you that is going to get lots of coverage. That is an expression of the belligerent side, the paranoid and fearful side, of the Russian approach to the Arctic.
The other side is the Law of the Sea: let's cooperate. I don't know if you know the Ilulissat Declaration, but it's the declaration of the Arctic five in the summer of 2008, saying that they're all going to cooperate and they're going to go by law. The Russians are very much on board with that, but the Russians are a bit schizophrenic and the readiness to be belligerent.... And that is probably born, by the way, of fear of what NATO has done to Russia and how it has brought former Soviet states into the alliance, etc. There is a Russian paranoia about NATO.
In any case, I think the Russians will act and react and they will keep the U.S. interest rising. That's my long answer.