The U.S. Senate has confirmed Michael Sfraga of Fairbanks to be the nation’s first ambassador-at-large for the Arctic.
The vote was 55-36, with nine Republicans joining Democrats to vote yes.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the chief advocate for creating the ambassador position and Sfraga’s biggest champion in the Senate.
“Mike is probably the most recognized go-to Arctic expert that we have, not just in Alaska, but around the country,” she said, outside the Senate chamber before the vote. “I go to a lot of Arctic convenings. Mike Sfraga is there at all of them.”
His expertise extends to Arctic research, policy and national security, she said. He’s in Helsinki now for a security conference and Murkowski said he’ll attend another in Warsaw next week.
Sfraga’s travel was at the root of why the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee opposed him. Sen. James Risch of Idaho said Sfraga didn’t disclose to the committee all his travel to Russia. Risch also argued that Sfraga was too trusting of the foreign officials and scholars he met at conferences and through his work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, especially those from Russia and China.
“I really think that he is naive at best, as far as dealing with Russia and China,” Risch said on the Senate floor. “And in his defense, the entire academic community, for that matter, shares this naivety when compared to our national security agencies.”
Murkowski disagrees with that assessment.
“He has been very clear about making sure that U.S. interests in the Arctic are protected and defended — against Russia, against China and anybody else that would would encroach on our sovereignty,” she said.
She also said he didn’t intentionally hold anything back from the committee but thought the panel expected just a list of international conferences where he gave a presentation. When the Senate committee asked for a fuller list, he complied. Then he searched his records and found more trips and conferences to tell the committee about.
President Biden created the Arctic ambassador-at-large position in 2022, elevating what had been called an Arctic co-ordinator. Ambassadors-at-large aren’t dispatched to a particular country and typically are assigned to a global issue, like the at-large ambassadors for religious freedom and global criminal justice.
Sen. Dan Sullivan did not vote on the Sfraga confirmation, but he praised the nomination last year. A staff member said Sullivan was part of a Senate delegation this week to the United Nations.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
