COOL UNDER PRESSURE
T
here’s something peculiar about the finish line of a cross-country ski race. Or rather, what the competi-
tors do when they cross it. Tey collapse onto the snow in rather dramatic fashion, gasping for air, after expending every last ounce of energy to complete the course. “I didn’t do that,” recalled Jim DeHart, the State Department’s U.S. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, when discussing his participation in the famous Norwe- gian Birkebeiner ski race in March 2018. “I was so cold, I was afraid I would break in half when I hit the ground. Plus, I knew I would never get up.”
DeHart, a career diplomat who was then chargé d’affaires (the senior embassy repre- sentative in the absence of an ambassador) for the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, had made it his goal to complete the enormously diffi- cult 54-kilometer (33.6-mile) race during his three-year assignment in Norway—a country renowned for its love of cross- country skiing. “Nothing would make me more relatable to a normal Norwe- gian than completing the Birkebeiner,” he said in a January telephone interview with Army AL&T. “I thought they would give me a key to the city or something.” (Full
disclosure: the author also worked at the embassy during DeHart’s tenure.)
Tat year, the race was almost canceled because of extreme cold—it was -24 degrees Celsius (-11 Fahrenheit) and the regulations called for cancellation at -25 degrees. “I did the race in probably the slowest time you can do it without getting pulled off the course,” he said. “If you don’t keep up a certain minimum pace, they will put you on the ‘bus of shame’ back to Lillehammer.” But he made it. Barely. “As darkness was falling, I got to the finish line more than eight hours after I started—which is about five and a half hours behind the fastest skiers.” He later quipped that he had performed a true feat of athleticism, since the faster competitors only skied for two and a half hours, while he completed “a grueling eight-hour slog.”
COOPERATION IS KEY Whether because of his demonstrated mastery of Nordic skiing or his reputa- tion as a skilled and principled diplomat (likely the latter), in July 2020 DeHart was appointed as U.S. Coordinator for the Arctic Region. “Te State Depart- ment decided that it was important to ensure that we have a balanced approach
toward the Arctic,” DeHart said. “We have people working on the Arctic, from a security perspective, economic perspec- tive, scientific research and environmental protection, and the secretary and other senior leaders wanted to make sure that we’re pursuing all those efforts in a well- coordinated, balanced way and bringing all of our tools to the table.”
Te effects of climate change are perhaps more dramatic in the Arctic than anywhere else on Earth—satellite imag- ery reveals that sea ice is declining at a rate of approximately 13 percent each decade. And as the ice recedes, change is coming. “Te Arctic region is really fasci- nating. I don’t think you can find another region of the world that is changing so quickly, physically and environmentally,” DeHart said. “Because it is warming so dramatically, it’s opening up the terrain to new players and new activities.” Te region is still relatively untouched, when compared with other parts of the world, he said. “But that is going to change. Tere’s going to be more tourism, there’s going to be more commercial activity, investment, resource extraction and also countries that are preparing themselves from a military perspective.”
MEDIA BLITZ
Jim DeHart, U.S. coordinator for the Arctic, sits down for an interview with a Swedish news reporter for TV4 Nyheterna on Sept. 24. (Photo by U.S. Embassy Stockholm, Sweden)
74
Army AL&T Magazine
Spring 2021
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