After the cold war ended, the Asia Pacific Region witnessed new developments in ocean management, related to 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) and countries’ to claim ownership over maritime space and marine resources. Though the prospects of interstate wars are diminishing, inter-state tensions arising from extensive claims of maritime boundaries are common. As such, it became imperative for states to strengthen their navies and to deploy their naval missions beyond the territorial waters in order to secure their interests and sovereignty. The situation with ASEAN is no different. While maritime security environment among ASEAN nations has changed, especially with newly emerging and more divers threats. At the same time, trans-boundary issues have required most of the ASEAN navies to redefine their roles. Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam are among the navies in ASEAN that acquiring state-of-art naval capabilities including surface platforms, anti ship missiles, submarines and maritime patrol aircraft and unmanned platforms. Most navies in the region rush to modernise maritime forces due to high levels of naval activity, increased spending and response to the possible threat of maritime related crime. As such, Confidence Building among navies is essential to avoid conflict and confrontation particularly among navies the Southeast Asia.
Introduction
As observed by Carlye A. Thayer, the general strategic outlook in the Asia Pacific region is positive over the next decade , nonetheless, there is significant naval expansion in the Asia Pacific Region in the 2000s. Richard A. Bitzinger noted that “From Japan to Southeast Asia to India, regional maritime forces have been adding new capabilities...
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...purpose fighter jets, battlefield tanks, helicopters and submarines the same year. The aggressive military modernization by many member state of ASEAN was to resume their procurement program that was disrupted by the 1997 financial crisis. Moreover, ASEAN economic recovered and in 1999, the ASEAN economic growth rate was about 5%. Most of the ASEAN countries enjoyed positive economic growth rates between 3%-8% and the sustainable economic growth encouraged ASEAN countries to increase defense and military spending (see: Figure 1 & 2 shows the increase in maritime related arms procurement among). Malaysia’s military expenditure increased from US$ 1.7 billion to US$ 3.5 billion and Indonesia’s from US$ 2.2 billion to US$ 4.2 billion between 2002 and 2007; and Singapore’s expenditure increased from US$ 4.6 billion to US$ 6.1 billion between 2000 and 2007.
Throughout the conflict Canada's naval contribution made a significant impact on coalition efforts to secure South Korea [5]. This was the first post-world...
Status of the Navy. (2004, September). The US Navy: Around the World, Around the Clock. Retrieved September 10, 2004 from http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ news/.www/status.html
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In the book Red Star Over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge of U.S. Maritime Strategy, the authors discuss their interpretation of Chinese strategy as it relates to the U.S. maritime power in the Western Pacific. Dr. Yoshihara and Dr. Holmes postulate that Chinese strategists have studied Alfred Thayer Mahan’s theories of sea power. He further expounds on “China’s ability to harness such power against others or to nullify the overbearing power adversaries hold in important sea areas.”1 The book continues by presenting an argument that Chinese strategist use a combination of Mahan and Mao Zedong to cover the strategic and operational levels of war for the ultimate purpose of building maritime power in order to build a great nation. This may be one explanation for current Chinese strategy, but is there another, possibly more practical explanation? This paper will present an alternate, more practical approach to today’s Chinese strategy. Contrary to a Mahanian approach, China bases its strategy on the practical needs of a great nation undergoing a ‘peaceful development’ supported by concepts from the Chinese military classics. In essence, the development of Chinese Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) and maritime capabilities comes as a result of the need to maintain social harmony and safeguard national interests, not in order to develop command at sea as Mahan theorizes.
The United States of America has been involved in many different conflicts, foreign and domestic, popular and unpopular, spanning across four centuries and all corners of the globe. From the warm coastal waters of the American homeland to the atolls of the Pacific, from the winding inland rivers of Vietnam to the chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz, American sailors have valiantly stood up to defend America’s interests at home and abroad. The Navy has had to continuously update its vessels and technologies in order to keep up with the rapidly changing times, and ensure we not only stay competitive with but surpass the foreign competition. No other period in history has undergone the swift technological evolution that our troops experience today, and outfitting our soldiers with the best equipment money can buy and the most up-to-date training must remain a top priority. As sequestration and budget cuts slash $487 billion from the Department of the Navy’s budget over the next 10 years, it is more evident than ever how detrimental these budget cuts can be on the sailors of today and tomorrow alike. Significant cuts to the Naval budget will jeopardize the readiness of our ships and sailors, impair our ability to maintain strategic assets ready for forward deployment in critical areas, and constrict our ability to acquire new and improved technology.
Thomas Wright’s “The Fall of the Unipolar Concert” describes the decline of U.S. global power to other states like Russia and China. It claims that these countries have been initiating revisionist and power balancing measures that threaten U.S. global hegemony. Russia brings back a light red scare by annexing Crimea to stop the expansion of the European Union and NATO, building up its military capabilities, and executing special military operations (Wright, 8). China has strengthen its claims on the South China Sea through aggressive marine operations which have created tensions with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and the United States. China has station and intimidated the surrounding countries where they claim as their economic exclusion zones while blocking the U.S.’s freedom to navigate the waters.
Past military events have demonstrated the importance of anticipation and preparation for a wide spectrum of missions and capabilities. To conduct these operations, the U.S. Military must prepare to move and conduct them anywhere in the world. The Military must also have the capability to conduct low intensity wars against an ill-defined enemy as well as major conventional style conflicts against major states.
China is the most populous state in the world, with over 1.3 trillion inhabitants (Central Intelligence Agency 2010). Because of its large population base, China also has the largest military and a booming economy that is third only America and Japan in terms of GDP; however, economic trends show that Japan’s economy is stagnating, while the American Chinese economies continue to spike upward (Google, Inc. 2010). Despite its growing economy and large military force, China lags behind America in technology and naval power. Chinese Admiral Wu Shengli said, “The Navy will move faster in researching and building new-generation weapons to boost the ability to fight in regional sea wars under the circumstance of information technology” (Xuequan 2009). This quote shows that China wants to remain a regional sea power, and not develop a blue-water navy that can compete with the American navy. Furthermore, a Popular Mechanics article showed the world that China was stealing American military “leap ahead” technology, or technology that is decades ahead of Chinese technology (Cooper 2009).
INTRODUCTION : a brief overview of the current situation regarding the security issue in the Pacific region
...na’s military modernization efforts more seriously. The idea of nationalism in Asia Pacific could impact the state of the powers in that region and eventually globally.
Given these sets of circumstances, china, Taiwan and United States have much to gain and even more to lose if an armed conflict erupts in the Taiwan Strait. All three countries have political, economic, and national security issues involved and united states and china are both in competition economic...
Pavel B. and Reynolds J. (2012) “Why NATO Is a Pacific Power” The National Interest [web] Available Via: http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/why-nato-pacific-power-7022 [Retrieved on: 06/05/2014]
Currently, International system is focusing on issues related with maritime security. Maritime security coxncern with threats that prevail in the maritime domain (Klein 2011; Kraska and Pedrozo 2013; Roach 2004; Vrey 2010, 2013). These threats include interstate-dispute, terrorism, piracy, drugs trafficking, people and illicit foods, arms proliferation, illegal fishing, environmental crimes, as well as accidents and disaster which happen in maritime domain. Thus, generally, maritime security can be defined as the absence of those threats. Meanwhile, there is an argument that inter-states dispute should be categorized as national security instead of maritime security. Thus, there is another definition of maritime security which define maritime security as good or stable order at sea (Till 2004; Vrey 2010; Kraska and Pedrozo 2013: 1). The definition of maritime security from one to another is different as the scope of maritime security is broad and each actor has different point of view on the issue. There is no universal legal definition about maritime security. The United Nation itself only
Chinas political and military mighty revolutions are clearly demonstrated in East China Sea between China and its customary adversaries Korea and Japan. In the Daily Mail, Chinese adjoining countries and the world see China as an intimidator due to it’s persistent over stepping on its obligation. To show its might China has relocated an oil platform into the disputed waters in the Paracel Island off Vietnam. To achieve this China has applied a 10km safety bounda...
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) has been managing maritime issues fundamentally for years and acceptable as the basic convention on solving maritime dilemmas. Not only dispute among states but also managing sea resources among states. Remarkably, maritime issues have been developing into more complex and complicated regarding the modernization, globalization and transnational problems. This convention alone is not enough to provide complete guidance to manage the confronting interests on the sea.