Rogue nations and bad actors are assembling on the world stage to ratchet up tensions for the United States. Russia flies fighters and bombers and sails ships and submarines near Alaska. This summer the Chinese joined them. Now the United States has sent 130 troops and mobile ballistic launchers to a remote island in the Aleutian Islands in response. 

For a relatively unpopulated and remote area of the world, there’s a seemingly disproportionate and growing interest in it.