Pack your bags – we’re going to go see Santa.  Looks like Christmas came early this year.

The only gift I’m looking for is a coherent Arctic strategy.  While work has already begun on countering foreign interest in the area, the U.S. is lagging behind others in developing relations and mapping out national territorial claims.

Indeed, the race for resources in the arctic is heating up and America is not devoting enough resources to securing future gains and investments from the melting ice caps.  Lately it seems the leader of the free world has been on the defensive, rather than taking charge like it should, in the winter wonderland.

In a fairly recent news article posted to defense.gov, Air Force Brig. Gen. Kenneth Lewis Jr. is quoted as saying, “Our strategic approach to the Arctic seeks to link goals with resources and activities in a manner that’s consistent with the low-level threat and the uncertainties regarding the rate of increase in human activity.”

But that’s downplaying the reality of the situation.  The Arctic is anything but a low-level threat:  China is moving in fast to sign new trade agreements with Greenland and secure oil drilling rights while the U.S. seems almost frozen in action.

In fact, the New York Times published an article accusing Congress of stalling in the ratification of the Convention of the Law of the Sea, which would allow America to make formal claims to territory and resources.

While the Senate prepares for elections on Nov. 4, the rest of the world is preparing for a second gold rush.

We’re essentially in the pre-planning stages of creating an Arctic policy right now, when we need to be in the implementation stage. 

Brookings Institution’s Energy Security Initiative has created a list of recommendations in the form of a policy brief for the U.S. State Department (DoS), including advice such as creating and appointing a new “Arctic Ambassador” and the formation of a new Polar Affairs regional bureau within the DoS.

Fortunately, President Obama has stayed frosty through the last several months and didn’t let the north slip his mind.

As a result of renewed icy relations with Russia vis-à-vis the Ukraine Crisis, Washington has restricted Western companies from doing business with and supplying Russian state-run Gazprom with vital equipment needed to meet production quotas in their Arctic oil fields.

It’s a smart move, considering 80 percent of Russia’s oil and almost all natural gas comes from the same isolated region, according to arctic.ru. After signing a new gas deal with China, I’m sure that stocking stuffer will bring a lot of joy to Putin.

Unfortunately, it’s just not enough.  The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that the Arctic holds 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas.

That means investing in the Arctic is the same as investing in our future.  While the shale revolution has done wonders for the economy and rocketed the U.S. into the position of leading oil producer world-wide, nothing last forever.

The longer Congress waits to act on ratifying the Convention of the Law of the Sea, the larger China and Russia will snowball ahead in claiming stake to important resources.

It’s time to create a coherent and powerful Arctic strategy that accurately displays U.S. interest in the region; that should begin by following Brookings’s recommendations.

American officials should then coordinate with NATO and other Arctic Council nations, of which there are 8, to ensure that China cannot exploit its growing power in the world to lay steal away territory with which it shares no boundary or border.

The Arctic is no laughing matter — it’s the polar opposite.  The sooner we act on securing our interests in the seabed and on frozen tundra, the quicker we are guaranteed a stable future without the provocation of a true resource race.