Murkowski Announces Anchorage, Alaska Chosen as Home for Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski today announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) selected Anchorage, Alaska as the location for the new Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. Named in honor of the late U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, the Stevens Center will support and strengthen advances DoD is making in the Arctic, using security cooperation, research and academia, and diplomacy. The Center will be the sixth DoD Regional Center and the only one specifically focused on the Arctic.
“I have been very outspoken to both the President and his administration that the Ted Stevens Arctic Center for Security Studies must be located in Alaska. We are the state that makes America an Arctic nation and our geostrategic location creates unparalleled possibilities available nowhere else. Alaska is indeed the geostrategic crossroads of the world, and the logical place for an Arctic Studies Center. As a nexus for security cooperation, the center will soon play host to America’s global partners and allies along with a variety of federal and state authorities and academic institutions, also bringing economic benefit to the area. I appreciate that the Department of Defense took our advice and made the right choice to locate the Center in Alaska,” said Senator Murkowski. “Our work to secure authorization and funding for the center was a huge accomplishment on its own, but now to know that the Center will officially be located in Alaska is incredibly welcomed news. I’m proud to have helped ensure the Ted Stevens Center continues to move forward from a mere concept to reality. As this project comes to fruition, we will all see the tremendous value it will provide as America pursues and defends our interests in the Arctic.”
Senators Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-AK) sponsored the initiative to create the Stevens Center in the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, and through her role as an appropriator, Murkowski secured $10 million for the Stevens Center in the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations package.
Background: Senator Murkowski is the leading expert among her Congressional colleagues on Arctic issues and has worked continuously to raise awareness of the region. At the beginning of the 114th Congress, Senator Murkowski and Senator Angus King (I-ME) formed the Senate Arctic Caucus to advance issues important to the Arctic and to the people who live there. Murkowski is the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. Murkowski has also led the charge to recapitalize and expand America’s fleet of Polar Security Cutters (also known as icebreakers).
