I For One Welcome Our New Chinese Naval Overlords
Jul 31, 2020177.4K Shares2.3M Views
The U.N. Security Council has approved military actionagainst the Somali pirates. And who’s looking to step up? The Chinese. Yes, the oogedy-boogedy Chinese, the bete-noire of the right in the days before the Muslims were the bete-noire, may join U.S., Russian and European naval attempts at antipiracy.
And you know who’s enthusiastic about that? The U.S. Naval Institute’s blog! Here’s a grown-up response to the prospect of concerted and constructive multilateralism, from blogger Galrahn:
“„Admiral Keating, call your office. Admiral Fitzgerald is on line 1. It really is a fascinating development, one that I personally think is a great thing and sends exactly the kind of signal we have been desiring from China for most of this decade. I don’t think China misunderstands our desire is to work with them as a partner, and the signal here is they see themselves as part of the partnership.
Yes, that’s right, despite the bleatings of militarists who view the Chinese as an inevitable enemy, there are in fact ways to share the world’s security burdens in a positive-sum fashion. The world is far, far better served forming legitimate (and legitimized) coalitions of capable nations to confront shared threats than it is when nations either seize for themselves the mantle of global protector and/or assume the burden alone, with or without the blessing of the international community. Simple concept, yet one often discussed as a utopian prospect. More from Galrahn:
“„If China, Russia, India, other Asian powers, the European powers, and the United States are all working together in a common cause to fight piracy, the role for the US Navy isn’t necessarily to lead the engagement, but more importantly, do what we can to be the enabler of cooperation between so many different nations. At this point is seems the next step is to determine how can we best fill that supporting role, as opposed to trying to take leadership or ownership of the problem.
Cut your hair, hippie.
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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