The Rising East: Walsh Looks To Mackinder For Naval Strategy

U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication 2nd Class David Kolmel

Admiral Patrick Walsh, who completed his watch as commander of the Pacific Fleet and retired from the Navy on Friday, leaves behind a proposal for an imaginative maritime strategy intended to reinforce the U.S. posture in Asia and to deter a potentially aggressive China.

Walsh suggests that the U.S. shift its focus and forces from Northeast Asia, the center of American attention in Asia since World War II, to Southeast Asia, specifically the South China Sea. Through that vital sea-lane passes more than half of the world’s shipping, of which 23 percent is U.S. trade — and is a vulnerable Chinese lifeline.

The admiral departed Pearl Harbor with a word of caution as he relinquished command to Admiral Cecil Haney, saying: "In the Pacific Century, sea power resumes its traditional role in the sea-lines of communication. It's an instrument of peace; it's an instrument of stability; it's a protector of trade and development."

Asian nations are scrutinizing America’s moves, especially the consequences of military budget cuts, he said. “They are watching with keen interest the effect of the U.S. economic challenges, the strain of more than a decade of war on the Navy's ability to remain forward, to remain engaged and ready."

In an interview earlier, Walsh said he had been influenced by Sir Halford Mackinder, the British political geographer who devised the “heartland theory” of world power in 1904. Mackinder argued that whoever controlled Eastern Europe could control the “world Island” in the center of the Eurasian continent and, in turn, the world itself.

By applying Mackinder’s geographic insights to Asia, Walsh said, “You can identify where the critical node is,” which is the South China Sea.

Moreover, he said, “It forces an assessment of whether we are prepared for where this economic juggernaut [China] is going.”

Applying Mackinder’s thought raises the question of whether the U.S. has positioned its forces to assure that the sea-lanes are kept open for the economic benefit of the U.S. and its allies — or can be closed in an operation to dissuade threats from China.

With American interests stretched from Seoul to Sydney to Sri Lanka, the South China Sea is essential to U.S. warships traversing to and from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Moreover, turbulence arises from competing claims to various islands in that sea, to access to undersea gas and oil deposits, and to rights in fishing grounds.

Admiral Walsh said he had discussed his application of Mackinder’s heartland theory with Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore considered to be the elder statesman of East Asia. “He was very interested in what we were doing,” the admiral said.

The admiral urged the U.S. to cultivate relations with that city-state and other Southeast Asian nations as Americans “invite partners to contribute to the overall security of the region.” That includes Vietnam, which has opened its ports to repair U.S. warships. The U.S. has moved to restore diplomatic relations with Burma, also called Myanmar, as it has begun political reforms.

In Washington on Wednesday, senior State Department officials met with Singaporean counterparts in the first U.S.-Singapore Strategic Partners Dialogue to discuss what State called “an already robust array of initiatives.”

A joint statement clearly aimed at China said they “affirmed the importance of freedom of navigation, and lawful, unimpeded commerce, respect for international law, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.”

China is well aware of the importance of the South China Sea to its economy and thus to its military modernization. Spokesmen in Beijing have asserted that China “enjoys indisputable sovereignty” over that sea, considering it to be internal waters. Beijing has repeatedly objected to U.S. joint exercises with Southeast Asian navies there.

Walsh’s strategic concept, about which he has written a classified paper, has evidently had some influence beyond his headquarters at Pearl Harbor. It did not show up in the Pentagon’s new strategic guidance but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed similar thoughts in her recent call for the U.S. to “pivot” its strength to Asia.

The United States has helped “to protect unfettered access to and passage through the South China Sea,” she wrote, “and to uphold the key international rules for defining territorial claims in the South China Sea's waters. Given that half the world's merchant tonnage flows through this body of water, this was a consequential undertaking.”

Similarly, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific and Asia, Admiral Robert Willard, has noted: “The sea lines of communication that crisscross the South China Sea carry $5.3 trillion in bilateral annual trade, of which $1.2 trillion is U.S. trade.”

Willard, who has sought to get his staff and subordinates to think more strategically, said the U.S. has had a “continual presence” there and seeks a dialogue with the Chinese so “they will constructively contribute to the security of this vital region.”

Loading