Somalia Highlights Vital Need For New Naval Allies
The recent standoff in the Indian Ocean demonstrates a disturbing trend regarding security of the world???s waterways ??? the lifeline of the global economy. Somalia is by no means unique. Pirates are busy on the other side of the Indian Ocean also. More specifically, they have been extremely active in the South China Sea. The problem for the international community is that these two areas book end the Indian Ocean, home to an enormous amount of the world???s shipping in oil and merchandise. The US Navy does an admirable job in patrolling these waters. But the US Navy cannot do this job alone. There are millions of square miles to cover, and only a limited number of ships. Allied navies from Europe have the same problem. The biggest new entrant to the Indian Ocean is the Chinese Navy, who pose a direct challenge to US supremacy in the Indian Ocean. The US therefore needs to reach out to friendly nations on the Indian Ocean itself ??? such as Australia and possibly Indonesia and Singapore. The country that will make the most difference in the Indian Ocean is India, which operates a large naval fleet. The US and India already enjoy some degree of naval cooperation. Last year, the navies of the US, India, Japan and Australia exercised together in the Bay of Bengal as a democratic show of strength. The United States needs to beef up this emerging naval security structure both for its own security, and for the world???s economic well being. If Somalia demonstrated anything, it demonstrated this.
http://dailyexception.com/2009/04/13/somalia-highlights-vital-need-for-new-naval-alliances/
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These days, NATO's future seems to be mired in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. With 70,000 troops on Afghan soil, and with the U.S. pressuring for an even greater commitment, "NATO is about Afghanistan and nothing else," says an official in Brussels.
But the Afghan trap is stretching NATO so thin, it may prove incapable of handling problems in its own backyard. In February, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said that the deepening financial crisis could provoke civil unrest and even "violent extremism" in Europe's weaker states. Already, mass protests in Greece and crumbling economies in Latvia and Hungary have been cited as worrisome. And just outside NATO's borders, Ukraine is "closer to a failed state than a functioning one," says one NATO official.
But budget cutbacks are handicapping the alliance, affecting its Afghan deployment and making it unlikely that NATO could manage two conflicts at once. Eastern Europe and the Baltics are now fretting that NATO's defense guarantees may prove untenable. To quell their fears, Britain has proposed an "Alliance Solidarity Force" that could be deployed if Russia grows too threatening. But at only 3,000 troops, the force would be mainly a symbolic deterrent, and many Western European members don't want to pay for it. Instead, experts say, a financially crippled NATO may have to focus on settling differences with Russia, not confronting it—and on hoping, like the rest of us, that the economic crisis is quickly solved.
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