America Rules the Waves. But for How Long ? - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-03/america-rules-the-waves-but-for-how-long
China builds fake islands in the South China Sea. Russia fires missiles into Syria from the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. North Korea launches ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. The U.S. orders three — three! — aircraft carrier strike groups to the Western Pacific in response. Houthi rebels shoot rockets at U.S. ships off Yemen. Pacific nations go on a submarine-buying binge. India and China start constructing their first homemade aircraft carriers. Pirates return to the waters off East Africa.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that control of high seas is becoming more vital than any time since World War II. Which makes it the perfect moment for an authoritative new book on the role of sea power in shaping human civilization across the globe and across the ages.
Into the breach steps James Stavridis, a retired four-star admiral and former supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His new book, “Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans,” is a breezy yet comprehensive overview of the topic, as well as a sort of sailor’s log and meditation on the power of the Great Blue. I decided a talk with Stavridis, now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, could help put the rising tensions on the world’s waterways into perspective. Here is an edited transcript of our interview.
Intéressant entretien avec un survol (forcément rapide…) de #géopolitique (mânes de Mahan !)
La réponse à la dernière question :
Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement is a huge blow. Voluntary, international cooperation on emissions control is the way forward, and now that is in question. There are a lot of international organizations that work on fisheries, scientific monitoring, deal with pollution and the like, but they are mostly under the United Nations umbrella. And strengthening them under Trump will be tougher.
In the U.S., we need better interagency cooperation: all cabinet-level and other organizations — Treasury, Justice Department, Coast Guard — working together to think through our regulatory regimes, share data, and reach a common understanding of how to go after lawbreakers. Oceans are the biggest crime scene in the world.
But above all, we need better public-private cooperation. You cannot solve this globally without working with the companies that move 95 percent of the world’s good across the ocean highway. It would be like developing a cyber-defense strategy without talking to Microsoft or Google. People call the Amazon the “lungs of the earth,” but it’s really the oceans. And if we cannot count on sustainable oceans, our future is bleak.