As many readers know, the Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower places a premium on cooperative maritime relationships. All too often though, these relationships are thought about on the low-end, and in many cases, there is a certain "patron/client" feel to how they are described. Put another way, some see "cooperative maritime relationships" and "building partner capacity" as the same thing--which they are not. The recent response to piracy in the Indian is a fine example of how they are not.
Still another example is on the high end--Maritime Ballistic Missile Defense. Today's news of a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Destroyer's intercept of an MRBM target in the Pacific shows how such relationships can run the gamut from cooperative maritime security all the way to the most sophisticated technological combat capabilities afloat. The relationship must be mutually beneficial, it must allow the parties involved to participate in a manner meaningful to them, and it must be consistent with both parties' technology bases and resources.
Maritime Ballistic Missile Defense is an area around which the US Navy is building lasting operational relationships with considerable strategic value. In addition to Japan, other obvious partners are South Korea, Australia, India, the Gulf Nations, Israel, Turkey and NATO. Linking afloat units with enhanced land and space-based sensors and weapons could create regional missile defense networks into which units could plug and play as they came and went. As ballistic missiles continue to proliferate, a cooperative response--catalyzed by the US--seems a worthy response.
Bryan McGrath
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