Realigning the Arctic

One of 20 plaques from the "Pax Americana" series created for the D.B. Weldon Library at Western University. 
 
"By the late 2020s, repeated incursions by Russian and Chinese forces made it clear that Canada no longer possessed the capacity or the appetite to properly defend or administer its Arctic territories. In 2028, responsibility for Arctic security was transferred to the United States as part of a broader continental security realignment. Framed as a temporary stabilization measure intended to safeguard navigation, environmental stewardship, and regional defense, the arrangement permitted American forces to establish an airbase in Inuvik and a naval port in Nanisivik, while also extracting mineral resources across the region. 
 
What began as a provisional arrangement was formalized on November 21, 2033, into a permanent transfer of sovereignty above the 60th parallel, an agreement that came to be known as the Arctic Realignment. A key figure in the negotiations was Richard Everard Webster (PhD, Political Science, Western University, 2016). Webster asserted that the treaty merely corrected an inefficiency: for Canada, the Arctic had long existed as a symbolic possession rather than a governed one. Integrating the region into America’s strategic and economic orbit, Webster maintained, reduced the likelihood of armed conflict while relieving Canada of responsibilities it had never adequately assumed.
 
After the signing, Webster was confronted by Canadian protesters on the steps of Parliament Hill. Asked whether the nation had surrendered too much, he replied that “no one was being asked to give up anything they were using.”"