Download - Royal Australian Navy

290 australian maritime issues 2009: spc-a annual
coverage about military cooperation year after year has a soothing effect
on the tensions between states and helps to overcome or reframe the
image of the cooperating partners.
How Can We Cooperate Better?
• United Nations Involvement. Until the end of the Cold War, United
Nations (UN) peace support operations were limited to the domains
of the land and air forces only. Naval forces, where deployed, were
in supporting roles to land operations. In 1998, the UN Independent
World Commission on the Oceans had called upon national navies to
be employed in a supranational role to police the oceans and uphold
international law. 18 A UN maritime standing force has also been
suggested by Norway and Russia in the past, to deal with the security
threats in the maritime environment. Flying a UN flag, in addition
to the country’s flag, a warship would signal that is acting in good
faith, against a threat of common concern, and under the sanction of a
universally accepted body. This would enhance the effectiveness and
acceptability of the mission. Another advantage of UN peacekeeping
operations is that they may involve countries otherwise marginalised
by their economic weakness.
• Frameworks. For any cooperative structure to be enduring, it needs to
be institutionalised under a framework. A well publicised structure of
cooperation acts as a deterrent for potential troublemakers. In addition,
frameworks provide strategic reassurance, both to the cooperating
partners and to other nations. The WPNS and IONS are examples
of cooperative frameworks at the naval level. Frameworks have a
charter that is binding on all partners. However, when the agreements
contained within the framework are violated, these then send strong
signals of malign intent. Such signals are less obvious when there are
no frameworks in the first place. Therefore formalising cooperation
into frameworks would ‘pre-empt disputes as well as prevent disputes
from developing into conflicts by enhancing trust and understanding’. 19
• Multilateral Cooperation. ‘Multilateral security cooperation is
important to foster trust among member countries’. 20 By participating
in multilateral forums nations and navies dispel fears about their
intentions and promote better interoperability. Regional agreements act
as building blocks of multilateral cooperation since they best enshrine
cultural sensitivities, religion and other regional concerns.