Australian Maritime Issues 2007 - Royal Australian Navy

236 AUSTRALIAN MARITIME ISSUES 2007: SPC-A ANNUAL
technology development, and outreach programs – and form them into a coherent,
mutually supportive set of activities for each country. Each TSCP is broadly similar in
concept to a smaller nation engaging in defence diplomacy in its region through an
international engagement plan. The CNO’s global vision of a ‘1000-Ship Navy’ logically
could be expected to integrate the appropriate maritime air, surface and sub-surface
capabilities into each Combatant Commander’s TSCP. There is no indication this occurs,
although inevitably there will be coincidental synergies between concept and TSCPs.
In terms of command and control it would have been preferable for the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff to propose and champion the ‘1000-Ship Navy’, encouraging
closely coordinated joint force integration in its support.
It would be naive of any nation to trust that TSCPs exist for the mutual benefit of the
US and themselves. The Quadrennial Defense Review and National Security Strategy
of the United States exist to protect current national security arrangements, dissuade
military competition, deter threats to vital interests, and defeat enemies that cannot be
deterred. In 2002 Admiral Fargo expressed it thus: ‘Pacific Command operationalizes
national security strategy and national military strategy with a regional emphasis’. 9
By 2006 the focus for PACOM was divided into five areas:
• prosecuting and winning the ‘war on terror’
• maturing joint and combined warfighting capabilities and readiness
• ensuring the credibility of operational plans
• advancing regional security cooperation’
• posturing forces for agile and responsive employment. 10
Equally, the CNO’s enthusiasm for his ‘1000-Ship Navy’ is driven not by philanthropy
but national interest. A year after introducing the ‘1000-Ship Navy’, Admiral Mullen
was urging positive steps to act quickly to develop global maritime partnerships. He
describes three ‘compelling’ reasons to do so: the rapid pace of globalisation, that the
threats faced are real and pervasive, and the ‘carrot’ of significant technical progress.
It is not at all surprising that the CNO of the world’s greatest economy would state:
We are all now connected. We all face the same dangers. We all share the
same opportunities. And since most of the world’s commerce still travels by
sea – some 90 percent – the opportunities before us in maritime security have
become more critical and more promising. In this global era, the economic tide
of all nations rises – not when the seas are controlled by one – but rather when
they are made safe and free for all. 11
The US economy is potentially the biggest loser if Admiral Mullen’s ‘ideologues,
pirates, proliferators, criminals, and terrorists’ succeed. 12 But succeed in what, and to
what degree, and how to define their success? The CNO’s target set appears now to
have grown radically beyond terrorism. A cynic might claim that without September
2001 and terrorism as its catalyst, PSI, RMSI and the ‘1000-Ship Navy’ concept would
not have seen the light of day. The broad expansion of the latter to include ‘pirates,