Somalia: For the record. India, China and Japan have begun coordinated naval patrols off the Horn of Africa with the assistance of counter-piracy mechanism Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE), Indian navy sources said. This is the first time that these three have coordinated in this fashion, though all have been engaged in anti-piracy operations for several years.
Phi Beta Iota: The old US model, of a very expensive and now unsustainable “forward presence” including over 1000 “locations” outside the USA, all prime targets for asymmetric attack, can be contrasted with the new Chinese model, of coordination, using shared information as the “loose glue” for building trust. The US has refused to entertain these notions since they began in force from 1988. The U.S. military is not thinking seriously about the future — for example, Hawaii as an autonomous state (if not a free Republic) that evicts all US forces as part of an internationalization and conversion to a Pacific “neutral” zone such as China has been thinking about for at least fifty years. Boneheads will label this idea insane. The more intelligent will plan for it. Put bluntly, the US Navy does not have a clue how to be influential in a sustainable (cost effective) manner in the Pacific or anywhere else, absent big bases, hundreds of billions, and tolerance for zero strategic smarts.
See Also:
US Intelligence & Policy on China & Pakistan Lack Consistency & Common Sense (i.e. Integrity)
NIGHTWATCH Extract: China-Iran Rail + China ReCap
NIGHTWATCH Extracts: China-Fiji, China Carriers, Venezuela-Colombia Re-Set
