Provision in defense bill codifies Arctic ambassador position to represent U.S. interests in new ‘global Arctic’
The United States may soon have an Arctic ambassador again to represent the nation’s interests in the far north. The post has been vacant for nearly a year now. That’s because Mike Sfraga, who’s currently the interim chancellor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, resigned from the post in January, just before Donald Trump took office.
But the Trump administration will soon have to nominate someone for the position now that Congress has approved a measure that requires it to be filled.
President Trump signed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, on Thursday. The 3,000-page policy document outlines the Defense Department’s plans to acquire weapons like ships, aircraft and missile systems.
Tucked deep within the document is also a provision that codifies the position of Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs – a diplomatic post also known as the Arctic ambassador.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she worked with members of the Senate Arctic Caucus and House Arctic Working Group to include the position in the NDAA. And she hopes the administration will move quickly to fill the post.
“We’ve been waiting on this for too long,” she said, “and given all that's going on, the geopolitical activities in the Arctic, waiting another year wasn't something that I was interested in.”
Murkowski was a leading advocate for creating the Arctic ambassador post, which the State Department established in 2022. But it took a while for the Biden administration to choose someone. Here she’s Murkowski making the case in a March 2024 hearing before members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to move ahead on the nomination of Mike Sfraga, who was then chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.
“We are the only Arctic country without one,” she said in an interview last week. “Everybody else has an Arctic ambassador. Even some of the non-Arctic countries, like Singapore.”
The Senate confirmed Sfraga’s nomination in September 2024, and he became the first and so far only U.S. Arctic ambassador. Murkowski said in an interview earlier this month that the need for someone to fill the post has grown even more urgent.
“ We've certainly seen Russia projecting its presence when they're flying, you know, their war planes in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone,” she said. “We've seen that multiple times over this past year. … We need to have someone who's going to work with our allies, and engage our adversaries in the region.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan cited the same concern in a written statement he issued Thursday. It read, in part, “Our country needs steady, predictable engagement and leadership at the diplomatic level to better represent America’s interests here, and that is exactly what an Arctic ambassador can deliver.”
Sfraga says he’s not interested in the job right now -- but adds he knows firsthand how essential it is.
“That person helps to formulate and communicate our Arctic policy,” he said. “It helps to infuse that policy into our overall foreign policy. I would argue that this ambassadorship also has a connection to domestic policy because of the state of Alaska.”
He said in a recent interview that the ambassador must engage with other Arctic nations, both allies and adversaries, and countries elsewhere around the world with interests in the region.
“ This is now a global Arctic,” he said, “whether it's trade or economics or great power competition. Oil, gas, critical minerals. Our new world. The Arctic plays such an important role.”
Sfraga and Murkowski both believe the ideal Arctic ambassador nominee would come from Alaska. And so does Troy Bouffard. He’s director of the UAF Center for Arctic Security and Resilience.
“I would hope that an Alaskan is appointed in order to be fully more or less qualified to represent the U.S. Arctic, which is defined by Alaska,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
Bouffard said it may be hard to find an Alaskan with the experience and skillsets like those that Sfraga possessed. And if so, he hopes the Trump administration will select a person who’s dedicated to understanding the state and its strategic importance.
“If we're not successful in getting an Alaskan into the position, he said, “we can have someone who's willing and brings a lot of other incredibly important world experience and can adapt to the Arctic challenges a lot easier.”
Bouffard says the State Department has capable staff running the Office of the Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs while the Trump administration looks for a nominee.
