The United States’ Need for a New Icebreaker Doesn't Really Have Much to Do With Russia

Foreign Policy: As President Barack Obama was preparing to trek up Alaska’s Exit Glacier to tape a special episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls, the White House announced Tuesday it will ask Congress to accelerate funding to build a new icebreaker and expand the nation’s small and aging fleet. The proposal, which calls for a new ship by 2020 rather than 2022, has been described as an effort to catch up to Russia’s far larger fleet, closing the “icebreaker gap” and asserting American power in a changing Arctic.

Yet it may merely be a necessary step for the United States to keep to business as usual.

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