text: Good morning. Here’s your Early Warning for Tuesday, 21 December 2021.TODAY’S BRIEFING:Army building Arctic Combat BrigadeBiden deploys medics to battle omicronDOJ reviews university espionage casesRussia-NATO SITREPIndo-Pacific SITREPDomestic SITREPFar Left Activity Rollup & OutlookUpcoming Event CalendarSITUATIONAL AWARENESSARMY EXPLORES ARCTIC BRIGADE: The Army plans to establish an Arctic force reportedly built on a Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The Army is interviewing Arctic experts and Alaskan soldiers for input, and the final report is due to the Army Chief of Staff in June for a final decision. The plans have been introduced after an increase in the number of northern threats. The Alaskan Command intercepted the most Russian military aircraft last year since the Cold War. During March, seven thousand soldiers will participate in a 10-day exercise to simulate what a ground threat would pose to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team. (Analyst Comment: Russia sent three submarines, MiG-31 fighters, and Russian ground forces to the Arctic in an exercise last May. The nation continues to exhibit adequate abilities for conflict in the north. China established its Arctic Strategy in 2018 and has since been working on its Arctic accessibility. – T.W.)OMICRON SPREAD SPARKS TROOP DEPLOYMENT: The Biden administration is deploying around a thousand military medical personnel to hospitals to assist with the spread of omicron. The administration also announced they are building a website for Americans to order at-home tests. The website will not be operational until January. Omicron now accounts for about 75% of sequenced covid cases in the U.S. (AC: The expansion of testing and deployment of military personnel is unlikely to bring relief as most assets will not be in place for weeks. The current at-home testing requisition is less than two tests per person, indicating the program is oriented more toward political point-scoring than harm reduction. – D.M.)DOJ TO REVIEW CASES OF U.S. ACADEMICS CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE RELATED CRIMES: The new head of the U.S. Justice Department’s national security division is planning to review the department’s approach to countering espionage threats from China. This is after several U.S. academics and professors have been arrested and charged with espionage-related activities in their collaboration with Chinese government-backed research programs at Chinese universities. Both China and several U.S. academics have called for the DOJ to cease its pursuit of U.S. academics accused of transferring technology and research and development data to associates in China. The Federal government has estimated that $225 billion per year in intellectual property is lost to China. National-security officials have said publicly that U.S. universities are a key conduit in that loss. (AC: The collaboration of U.S. academics with Chinese universities is a major pipeline for illicit technology transfer to China. U.S. universities and academics receive generous grants and subsidies from Chinese government-backed university research programs. This source of “funding” is used as a hook to attract Chinese-American professors and researchers who wittingly or unwittingly transfer technology to their counterparts in China. U.S. universities also receive hefty tuition payments from Chinese students recruited through these research collaboration programs. DOJ is likely responding to the pain points expressed by U.S. universities to the potential loss of Chinese funding. –