Policing sea lanes
One common refrain among proponents of boosting defense expenditures is that failure to do so would, among other things, leave sea lanes unguarded. The reality is quite different, as Peter Apps explains in a report for Reuters:
The U.S. Navy estimates that on any given day as many as 30 to 40 warships are engaged in operations to keep shipping safe from young Somalis in skiffs with AK-47s and ladders.While U.S., NATO and European Union forces make up the majority, the last two years have seen a growing presence from China, Russia, India, Japan, South Korea and others.
While piracy -- which has redrawn shipping routes and driven up insurance costs -- is seen the main driver, all are seen also wanting to stake a claim to increasingly important sea lanes.
This growing presence suggests precisely what many libertarian advocates of reduced defense spending have long argued: that removing the U.S. from some security missions doesn't mean chaos and terror consumes the Earth, but that other stakeholders get off the sidelines and bear the costs for these missions. In this particular case I think keeping maritime routes open is a much better use of American defense dollars than nation building in Afghanistan or Iraq, but there's no reason to believe that this dynamic - of other nations filling in gaps left by the U.S. - couldn't be profitably replicated elsewhere.
(AP Photo)
