Naval round-up as peace continues to break out all over

New post up at Liberty Unyielding. Enjoy!

Japanese comeback proceeding apace

Japan’s minister of defense, Itsunori Onodera, was in New Delhi last week for high-level talks with his Indian counterpart, A K Antony.  Among other regional security topics, including the unilateral ADIZ declaration by China, the two ministers agreed to mount a joint naval exercise off Japan later this year.  That would be a first.

The first India-Japan naval exercise off of India’s coast took place in December, however.  At the same time, the two nations’ coast guards announced they would conduct a joint exercise in January (starting tomorrow, 14 January, in fact), also off India’s coast.

(Some readers may have seen the report today that Japan is requesting to participate in the next annual MALABAR exercise with the U.S., India, and other South Asian navies in the Bay of Bengal.

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Chinese power move in South China Sea: This is big

Mariners and the specialty mariner press know it’s big.  But mariners can’t fix this.  It will take national policies to fix it, and non-specialist citizens therefore need to understand its importance.

So, I reiterate: this is big.  After several years of preparations for this day (see, for example, here, here, and here), China has issued a unilateral order that foreign fishing vessels will have to obtain permits from China to fish in two-thirds of the South China Sea (SCS), an area in which China has long made excessive territorial claims.

U.S. airlines expected to comply with Chinese ADIZ rules

According to the State Department, the United States expects our airline carriers will comply with the ADIZ rules laid out by China in the Notice to Airmen announcing enforcement of the ADIZ.

As with the distinction we are observing with respect to Iran’s right to enrich uranium, our acceptance of the ADIZ rules does not mean we agree with them, according to the State Department formulation.  It just means our civilian airliners are complying with them.

Japan and South Korea are taking a different tack.

Bad tidings of sea and air space challenges

“History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.” — Ronald Reagan

It made the most news when China did it a few days ago.  But it’s been building for a while, and it’s not just off China.  As the holidays settle in on us, probes of other nations’ sea and air space are in the air.  Is war coming tomorrow?  No.  But whether it comes after tomorrow will depend on more than gestures from that shapeless blob of geopolitical potential that we may now, in a post-superpower world, call the “status quo powers.”  It will depend on the outcomes the status quo powers can secure.

The China Challenge