Arctic Security: The New Front Line

Join Ambassador Mike Sfraga, former Ambassador-at-large for Arctic Affairs, and Colonel Russell Vanderlugt, commanding officer of the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division’s Arctic Aviation Command, for a high-level conversation moderated by Dole Institute Visiting Fellow Jerry Seib on why the Arctic matters now—where diplomacy and military strategy converge amid strategic chokepoints, great power competition, and evolving national security challenges.

This program is presented in partnership with the KU Office of National Defense Initiatives, the Intelligence Community Centers for Academic Excellence, and the KU Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. This program is co-sponsored by KU International Affairs and the KU Department of Political Science.

Jerry Seib has been a journalist with The Wall Street Journal for almost 45 years. He served as the Journal’s Executive Washington Editor and wrote the weekly “Capital Journal” column for 29 years. He also reported from the Middle East for the Journal in the mid-1980s, covered the White House, has moderated three presidential debates, and interviewed every president since Ronald Reagan.

Ambassador Mike Sfraga, Ph.D., was nominated and later confirmed by a bipartisan vote of the U.S. Senate to serve as the nation’s first ambassador-at-large for Arctic affairs. He was twice appointed to serve as chair of the United States Arctic Research Commission. Sfraga previously served as the founding director and then-chair and distinguished fellow of the Polar Institute, as well as director of the Global Risk and Resilience Program, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is a Fulbright Scholar and co-developed and twice served as co-lead scholar for the U.S. State Department’s inaugural Fulbright Arctic Initiative. Sfraga earned the first Ph.D. in Northern studies and geography from UAF. He also has a bachelor’s degree from UAF and a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University.

Colonel Russell Vanderlugt assumed command of the 11th Airborne Division’s Arctic Aviation Command at Fort Wainwright on August 8, 2024. The Arctic Aviation Command is a brigade-level organization consisting of 71 aircraft and all aviation elements assigned to the US Army’s Arctic Division. In his previous assignment, he served at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson as Joint Director of Strategy and Plans, J-5, for the Alaskan NORAD Region and Alaskan Command – a joint command reporting to US Northern Command. He holds a doctorate in Arctic and Northern History from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. While serving on active duty in the Army over the past 24 years, he and his spouse have raised four children – now all teenagers – two of whom were born in Fairbanks.