The Future Maritime Operating Environment and the Role of Naval Power

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Maritime security is not the only area where multilateral efforts have encountered resistance, as the trend regarding ecological initiatives is not entirely positive. In some cases, widely-supported initiatives have encountered often decisive opposition, particularly when it concerns imposing some form of international legal control over portions of the high seas. At present, approximately 12 percent of the Earth’s surface is protected by environmental legislation, while only one percent of the oceans enjoy a similar level of legal coverage. The UN Conference on Biological Diversity set a target in 1997 of having 10 percent of the oceans protected by 2012. By the end of 2011, only 1.6 percent had been achieved and most of the existing maritime protection areas are small and near coastlines. 315 It will be far more difficult to obtain agreement on such zones on the high seas. In March 2015, the British government established an 830,000 square kilometre marine reserve around Pitcairn Island in the Pacific. 316 That was, however, the decision of a single national authority. With regard to obtaining international accord, the results are less convincing. In 2014, negotiations within the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary failed when China and Russia objected to catch limits on a number of fish species, including krill, which are important in local food chains. 317 As climate change opens the polar seas to navigation—safer and sustained—it is an open question if internationally recognized special protections for these sensitive ecological regions will be negotiable, or if extant (e.g., under UNCLOS), upheld in practice. 315 Roberts, Oceans of Life, p. 305. 316 Pew, “National Geographic Applaud Creation of Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve”, PR Newswire, 18 March 2015 [accessed on 25 March 2015 at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pew-nationalgeographic-applaud-creation-of-pitcairn-islands-marine-reserve-296729591.html]. 317 “Russia, China Reject World’s Largest Marine Sanctuary”, Sea Technology, December 2014, p. 68. 66 DRDC-RDDC-2016-R085
6 The Role of Navies What is the role of navies in this discussion? How does naval power relate to the rapidly changing maritime environment? Such questions are warranted and necessary for, as a senior member of the International Maritime Organisation has recently written, “[t]here does seem to be an almost existential crisis around the question of what navies are for.” 318 It is perhaps easiest to observe that navies exist to support government policy. Indeed, they are foremost an instrument of policy and, as a result of the range of capabilities and platforms they possess, navies are remarkably agile in addressing that requirement. 319 A fleet with modern, combat-capable surface ships and submarines guarantees that it is able to conduct a full range of missions, from domestic-oriented operations, to coercive diplomacy and to armed conflict. With at-sea support, its ships are largely self-sustaining, are able to be forward deployed for long periods of time, and can rapidly re-role from one type of mission to another. Their ability to remain on station (often in international waters) means that warships also have flexibility as a policy instrument that is not available to ground and air forces. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that the overall utility of navies has less to do with specific missions—defending trade or providing security for SLOCs or for counterpiracy—but rather flows from an indirect contribution to international stability. 320 That argument poses a serious challenge to the dominant narrative regarding the role of navies—but it need not be so. For, despite the absence of any major fleet engagements since the end of the Second World War, navies have always been very active. Even in peacetime, they do lots of different missions. Taking into account the role of navies and naval power in the contemporary era and likely in the decades to come requires, therefore, a broad perspective. 321 6.1 The Constabulary Role, Cooperation and Capacity Building Given the expanding demands of maritime security, a focus by some navies on constabulary functions will continue for many decades to come and could even intensify. These tasks include search-and-rescue, environmental protection, prevention of pollution, counter-piracy, fisheries enforcement, as well as interdicting narcotics traffic at sea and illegal migration. Many of these functions will be exercised in territorial waters. In such circumstances, countries such as the US or China, will continue to rely on coast guards. Indeed, under existing law, the US Coast Guard (in peacetime an agency of the Department of Homeland Security) is the lead agency for maritime homeland security for which the USN might on occasion be called upon to support. 322 In certain circumstances, it is not just a matter of dividing responsibilities, for a government’s reliance on a 318 Chris Trelawny, “Maritime Security Beyond Military Operations: A Civilian Perspective”, RUSI Journal, February/March 2013, p. 51. 319 Hew Strachan, The Direction of War; Contemporary Strategy in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 157. 320 This argument is made in James de Waal, “The utility of naval power”, Jane’s Navy International, January/February 2015, p. 12. 321 This expansive view has led one author to write that navies can legitimately be understood as “the backstop of national security.” See David Blagden, “Sea Power is Benign Power”, The RUSI Journal, Vol. 159, June 2014, p. 55. 322 The USN is, for example, the lead agency for dealing with mine counter-measures. See Scott C. Truver, “Mines and Underwater IEDs in U.S. Ports and Waterways”, US Naval War College Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, Winter 2008, pp. 112–114. DRDC-RDDC-2016-R085 67
Page 1 and 2:
The Future Maritime Operating Envir
Page 3 and 4:
Abstract … Drawing upon a wide ar
Page 5 and 6:
Table of Contents Abstract … ....
Page 7 and 8:
List of Figures Figure 1: One World
Page 9 and 10:
Acknowledgements I am grateful to a
Page 11 and 12:
1 Introduction 1 The maritime envir
Page 13 and 14:
Much of the discussion that follows
Page 15 and 16:
2 The Maritime Environment as a Glo
Page 17 and 18:
finfish and shellfish are farmed. 3
Page 19 and 20:
2.2 Undersea Communications and Min
Page 21 and 22:
esources) there will be continued g
Page 23 and 24:
2.4 Regulation of Ocean Space The U
Page 25 and 26: 3 Challenges to Order in the Mariti
Page 27 and 28: impossible, and certainly not a sho
Page 29 and 30: esult, confrontations between gover
Page 31 and 32: 3.2 Submarine Cables Given their si
Page 33 and 34: jurisdiction.” 99 There is, howev
Page 35 and 36: of al Qaeda had tried to buy into a
Page 37 and 38: 3.4.1 Chokepoints The existence of
Page 39 and 40: There is, moreover, a major securit
Page 41 and 42: In some regions, such as off the Ho
Page 43 and 44: will not be reduced by decisions of
Page 45 and 46: EEZ and protected it by using more
Page 47 and 48: access. 173 They will also alter th
Page 49 and 50: ecently noted, “[e]conomic growth
Page 51 and 52: evenue. Despite improvements in Sin
Page 53 and 54: Table 4: Overview of Major Indo-Pac
Page 55 and 56: 4.2 US Decline and Sino-US Competit
Page 57 and 58: joint statement regarding Beijing
Page 59 and 60: order upheld by the US since 1945 p
Page 61 and 62: population uncomfortable with a rev
Page 63 and 64: An important element of the 2012 st
Page 65 and 66: including the freedom of the seas.
Page 67 and 68: premiums for the NSR make the voyag
Page 69 and 70: activity in the Arctic could preced
Page 71 and 72: Alongside the impact of Russian pol
Page 73 and 74: 5 Mitigating the Challenges Maritim
Page 75: Even in areas that directly intrude
Page 79 and 80: The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) is an
Page 81 and 82: More recently, a Chinese naval frig
Page 83 and 84: 6.4 Sea Control and Sea Denial 343
Page 85 and 86: quite possibly, the sea denial capa
Page 87 and 88: detection and counter-detection. It
Page 89 and 90: Whether they are conventional or nu
Page 91 and 92: theorists that confronting a modern
Page 93 and 94: The development of cyber capabiliti
Page 95 and 96: middle-Power navies will be unable
Page 97 and 98: those hostilities ended asserted th
Page 99 and 100: maritime patrol aircraft in controv
Page 101 and 102: traditional maritime Powers. For ri
Page 103 and 104: References .. Primary Sources Arcti
Page 105 and 106: _____, Congressional Budget Office.
Page 107 and 108: Clark, Bryan. The Emerging Era in U
Page 109 and 110: Krepinevich, Andrew. Why AirSea Bat
Page 111 and 112: Till, Geoffrey. Seapower - A Guide
Page 113 and 114: Burnett, Douglas R., Tara M. Davenp
Page 115 and 116: Grygiel, Jakub J.. “The Dilemmas
Page 117 and 118: Montgomery, Evan Braden. “Contest
Page 119 and 120: Weir, Gary E.. “The answer may be
Page 121 and 122: “Indian Navy Plans to Acquire 50
Page 123 and 124: “Pew, National Geographic Applaud
Page 125 and 126: DOCUMENT CONTROL DATA (Security mar
show all

The Future Maritime Operating Environment and the Role of Naval Power

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?