After more than a decade of intensive ground combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is facing a security environment very different from that which defined the first years of the 21st century. The threats facing the United States abroad are increasingly maritime in nature, whether it’s China’s aggressive …
As the Chinese National People’s Congress reveals various governmental restructurings (not to be mistaken for reforms), an important one is the streamlining of Chinese maritime law enforcement forces. The various Chinese maritime law enforcement agencies, including the coast guard, fisheries enforcement, and anti-smuggling police forces, will be consolidated over the …
Earlier this week, Somalia’s prime minister and presidential hopeful Abdiweli Mohamed Ali announced that his government seeks to establish a marine task force to stop “foreign countries and companies from taking Somalia’s resources illegitimately.” Ali is getting ahead of himself. Instead of looking to expand the government’s use of force, …
The year was 1979. America’s military had emerged from the Vietnam War earlier in the decade and was now facing sizable and significant budget cuts. Capt. Tom Shanahan, commanding officer of the USS Canisteo, had just returned from the Mediterranean Sea and was now leading an overhaul of his fleet …
Back in 1982, President Ronald Reagan decided not to sign a treaty known as “Law of the Sea” (LOST), a United Nations convention that would raid America’s treasury for billions of dollars, then redistribute that wealth to the rest of the world by an international bureaucracy headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica. …
The United States is a maritime nation. The military is the nation’s guarantor of freedom of the seas and protector of global sea lines of communication. The military ensures the safe transit of international commerce along trade routes that allows our local grocery store and Wal-Marts shelves to remain stocked …
