Keeping the Peace

Guy Sorman at City Journal gives us the Navy's view on why it's necessary to patrol the Pacific:

How dangerous and unstable would Asia become without the Seventh Fleet? The Navy points to two different threats. The first is China, which has territorial claims against most of its neighbors. Taiwan comes immediately to mind, of course, but the Chinese government is also disputing ownership of the oil-rich Spratly Islands with Vietnam and the Philippines. If North Korea were to collapse, moreover, the Chinese Army could take over its territory before South Korea or the U.S. had time to intervene. China is building a very large deepwater fleet—the first in its history. (South Korea and Japan are similarly increasing their naval power.) Thus far, this Chinese fleet seldom moves far from China’s territorial waters, something that surprises the Seventh Fleet leadership. The lack of a high-seas tradition, perhaps?

The other peril comes from Islamic terrorism: a loose network of al-Qaida affiliates operating in East Java, northern Sumatra, the southern Philippines, and southern Thailand.

One of the conversations we're going to need to start having as China becomes more powerful is whether we're defending Pacific sea lanes for China or from China. Right now, it sounds like the latter. That's clearly going to become untenable as China's power grows.

Territorial disputes notwithstanding, China also benefits from global trade, and particularly trade with Japan and Taiwan. They have a strong interest in the free flow of goods through the Pacific, so the ideal situation is to have the U.S. Navy make room for a China that recognizes itself as a stakeholder in the current international system, and not as the vanguard of a new one. This would not only improve Pacific security, but defray its costs, which today are born exclusively by the U.S. taxpayer.

Of course, the Chinese may not be interested in a shared responsibility and may view Asia as an exclusive sphere. They may view U.S. policing efforts as containment measures - which will, in turn, invest their territorial disputes with new found geopolitical meaning. Then we're going to have to decide which of China's territorial claims are worth opposing with American blood and treasure.

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Photo via SqueakyMarmot under a Creative Commons license.