A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.
OPINION:
It’s no coincidence that President Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin will hold a peace summit this week in the 49th state.
America and Russia share a collective memory of the stabilizing buffer the Arctic provided during the Cold War, when flash points of conflict elsewhere risked rapid escalation to World War III and nuclear winter. Meanwhile, along the lengthy Ice Curtain between Alaska and the Soviet Union, life went on much as it always had. Next came our post-Cold War hope that Russia would finally come in from the cold as the next frontier for democracy and economic partnership with Alaska, right up until the Ukraine invasion in 2022 brought such collaborative overtures to a halt.
These are all compelling reasons for bringing Mr. Trump’s summitry to Alaska, where the White House hopes the majestic landscapes might foster a reset in the recently strained bromance between The Donald and The Vladimir. Will it fizzle the way the breathtaking 2018-2019 summit with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un did, ending with a whimper and not a deal? Or might we see a new chapter of history unfold, just as we did after the Taliban peace treaty brought an end to our forever wars?
Alaska’s unique Russian-American heritage presents much reason for hope. This unique territory was once the domain of Moscow but peacefully transitioned to that of Washington, not by force or coercion but by a fruitful negotiation. After this, Russia gladly withdrew from North America in exchange for what it viewed as just and fair compensation. This is as good a blueprint for ending the bloodshed in Ukraine as one could hope for.
The real story here and a key reason for bringing this next chapter in Mr. Trump’s peacemaking to Alaska is the realization in Washington and Moscow that Arctic exceptionalism is still alive and well, along with its certitude that the North Star still inspirationally points us toward peace, whether we’re ready for it or not.
President Reagan tried this sort of peacemaking during his historic Reykjavik summit with Mikhail Gorbachev in October 1986 and came within a whisker of ending the Cold War in dramatic and historic fashion. This week, Mr. Trump has his chance to do much the same on the 80th anniversary of World War II’s conclusion.
At this year’s Arctic Encounter conference, one focus was on what Arctic Today headlined as the “importance of pragmatism in a post-exceptionalism world.” Yet pragmatism can get us only so far. What is needed instead is vision, boldness and a willingness to make America and the Arctic great again.
That is what Mr. Trump is bringing to Alaska. If he succeeds, we will see Europe’s most destructive war in generations come to a swift and merciful end. Such an ambitious and urgently needed summit couldn’t happen on European soil, where small thinking and old ideas refuse to die, and where Russia remains vilified.
In Alaska, anything is possible. Like the limitless northern horizon, the northern imagination stretches on forever because Arctic exceptionalism has never died.
The Arctic is where the continents and hemispheres meet. It’s where, in prehistory, humanity boldly trekked from Eurasia into the Americas, bringing civilization and cultural richness to every corner of our world. It’s where our isolation builds not just the strength and independence for which the Arctic is deservedly famous but also a warmth of character and a hospitable spirit found all across the circumpolar north. We have to listen only to our hearts as they beat in unison and harmony and not to the pundits who tell us Arctic exceptionalism is part of the past that should be buried once and for all.
Let’s end the festering war consuming the heart of Europe’s east and show the world the way things can be: the way the north is. Mr. Trump, the perennial outsider, knows better than to listen to unreformed Cold Warriors of the discredited deep state and instead seeks to expand America’s Arctic presence. In so doing, he will expand our greatness.
On Friday, Mr. Trump will have a chance to help restore Arctic exceptionalism, which has long been envisioned — most famously by Gorbachev at the end of the Cold War — as a beacon of hope and a zone of peace for the world to emulate.
We should all welcome Mr. Trump north with open hearts and minds and pray together that he achieves his vision of peace.
• Barry Scott Zellen, Ph.D., is a research scholar in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut and senior fellow (Arctic security) at the Institute of the North. He is the author, most recently, of “Arctic Exceptionalism: Cooperation in a Contested World” (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2024).
Please read our comment policy before commenting.