Reflections on the New Indo-Pacific Maritime and Naval Environment
REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW INDO-PACIFIC MARITIME AND NAVAL ENVIRONMENT by J. A. BOUTILIER1 INTRODUCTION It is widely recognized that the centre of world economic gravity has shifted from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific region. For the purposes of this review, that region will be said to encompass the oil-producing states of the Arabian Gulf area, India and Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand, and the states of East Asia from Indonesia to Japan. While trans-Pacific and intra-Asian trade is booming and megaports are burgeoning throughout the region, dramatic changes are also occurring in the naval realm. Clearly, there is a complex and critical relationship between the growth of commercial shipping and the development of regional navies. Above and beyond that consideration, however, there are a number of fundamental realignments occurring in the roles that navies (and, to an increasing degree, coast guards) are expected to play, the threats they are expected to face and the areas in which they are expected to operate. These realignments are a reflection of tectonic shifts that have taken place since the end of the Cold War in the spatial relationships between the land and the sea; with mercantile activities moving toward the coast and navies moving toward the shore. Simultaneously, the trajectories of weapons and trade have blurred the traditional distinctions between the two domains. No ocean in the world is as geographically complex, jurisdictionally contentious, and potentially confrontational as the Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, it could be argued that no maritime region is more dynamic and important, locally and globally, than the Indo- Pacific region.
[Show full text]