Since the 15th century, the strategic value of the ocean in national development has been continuously highlighted, and human civilization has begun to enter a more "pioneering" marine era. Especially since the beginning of the 21st century, as sea power has occupied the center stage of maritime politics for a long time, various maritime countries have engaged in protracted competition, cooperation and conflict in order to compete for sea power. Historically, the ocean has had two basic manifestations of national development: sea power and maritime rights. Sea power is closely linked to the model of the rise of great powers by force. After the Second World War, the mode of the rise of the armed forces of the great powers has been more and more restricted, especially in the situation where peace and development have become the main theme of the times, the speed of the overall development of the world has accelerated, the degree of interdependence has increased greatly, and the number of international organizations has increased sharply.
Sea power and the development of the theory of sea power
Analysis of the Concept of Sea Power Both the sea and sea power are objective existences independent of human subjective consciousness. Before the 15th century, people's understanding of the sea and the technical ability to use the sea were still in a very superficial and perceptual stage, so they did not form a real sense of sea power. After the opening of new shipping routes in the 15th century, the development of capitalism and the need to continuously expand the sales channels of products drove the bourgeoisie to run around the world, settling everywhere, developing everywhere, and establishing contacts everywhere. The bourgeoisie, by opening up the world market, has made production and consumption in all countries cosmopolitan. That is to say, after the opening of new shipping routes, the bourgeoisie used the sea to expand overseas, open up colonies, divide the world, and compete for world hegemony, and in this process, the concept of sea power was gradually born. Based on this, the current understanding of sea power in the global sense includes two meanings: one is a country's control over the ocean, and the other is a country's ability to use the ocean, that is, maritime rights.
The core of sea power
The Development of the Theory of Sea Power With the gradual clarity of the concept of sea power since the 15th century, the theory of sea power has gradually developed and matured. The representative is the theory of sea power of the American strategic military strategist Mahan. Mahan used history to study military theory, emphasizing the practicality of historical research. The theory of sea power points out that there are two major parts of a country's sea power, one of which is the sum of the systems that enable a country to obtain wealth and develop its maritime commerce or maritime economy, including the merchant fleet, overseas trade system, port system, and overseas colonial system, and the second part is to protect the maritime power of the country in the first part, especially the maritime military power.
"The Influence of Sea Power on History 1660-1783", "The Impact of Sea Power on the French Revolution and the French Empire: 1793-1812", and "The Connection between Sea Power and the War of 1812" are called Mahan's "Sea Power Trilogy"
In addition, Mahan's theory of sea power also put forward six elements for a country to have sea power. First, the geographical location of the country, that is, the country with sea power must have a vast coastline. Second, the natural structure of the country, a country with sea power should have a good harbor, its sea is closely connected with inland rivers, and the country's economic development is a system related to the sea. Third, the territorial scope of a state, that is, the territorial scope of a maritime power state, should provide sufficient support, resources and coastal land area for a country's maritime activities. Fourth, the country's population, countries with sea power must have enough personnel to develop the marine economy and participate in the navy, and the number of people engaged in marine-related occupations accounts for a certain proportion. Fifth, the national character of the country, the national character of a sea power country has three distinctive characteristics. First of all, the pursuit of wealth, for example, the first capitalist countries to pursue the world's sea power have obvious profit-seeking; second, they have an adventurous character and are willing to explore and adventure in the unknown depths of the ocean; third, they have a natural sense of intimacy with the sea, are willing to sail, and carry out commercial and trade activities related to the sea, and the country and nation are closely related to the sea. Sixth, if the country's principles and policies are the objective conditions for constructing a maritime power state, then this element is the subjective motive, that is, whether a country's government attaches importance to the sea and is willing to take the initiative to implement some policies to make the national development strategy trend towards the sea, and to concentrate the country's economic development and military development mainly in the direction of the sea.
The changing characteristics of the world's sea power over the past century
Human civilization is always moving forward, and although there are some similarities in sea power, the world today is not exactly the same as Mahan's imperialist era. Looking at the development process of the world's maritime countries, especially the maritime powers, and the history of the development of sea power over the past century, we can see that the connotation and concept of sea power are constantly updated, and have distinctive characteristics of the times.
The center of the world's sea power struggle has shifted from west to east. Over the past 100 years, the mode of contention for the world's oceans has undergone a transformation from military contention to comprehensive competition, and the main areas of contention have gradually expanded from the Atlantic Ocean, where the Western maritime powers are concentrated, to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, which are rich in resources. Obviously, the ancient oceans were divided into two centers, the Middle and the West. Around the 15th century, the center of the ocean in the West shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, while the center of the ocean in the East remained along the continental coast on the edge of the western Pacific. Therefore, the main area of sea power struggle in the modern world is in the Atlantic.
But from the 19th century onwards, the center of maritime contention gradually expanded to the east. By the beginning of the 20th century, the expansion from west to east was already very obvious. The most important symbol of this was the decline of the British and German navies after the end of World War I, and the rising rise of the U.S. navy. At the same time, after the end of World War I, the US Navy made an important strategic judgment, that is, a maritime power that could compete with it was rising in the East - Japan, so at this time the US Navy began to implement the strategy of two-ocean deployment and two-ocean balance. Its combat forces are deployed in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and although the United States implemented a strategic arrangement in World War II to Europe and then Asia, it was actually deployed in the Pacific direction during the strategic decisive battle. The Pacific Ocean has become the main area for strategic competition among maritime powers at this time, which also means that the struggle for sea power among maritime powers has entered the Pacific era from the Atlantic era, which is dominated by the Atlantic Ocean.
After World War I, with the rise of Japan, the maritime scramble entered the Pacific Age
The focus of the world's sea power struggle has shifted from controlling sea lanes to fighting over the ocean itself. In modern times, the ocean has had an increasing impact on the world political and economic order, and has gradually become the main space for human survival and development. After World War II, the geographical map of all countries in the world was relatively stable, and while the interdependence of various countries, nationalities and regions continued to deepen, their dependence on sea lanes and marine resources was also increasing. Since the beginning of the new century, with the gradual enhancement of people's ability to use the sea, all sea-related countries have begun to set their sights on the sea, which contains huge economic and strategic value, and the competition for sea power has become more intense.
In 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman issued the "Continental Shelf Proclamation", proposing that the scope of the continental shelf is from the coast to the seabed of 183 meters, setting off a worldwide "blue enclosure movement". This also shows that the use of the ocean by all countries in the world is no longer limited to its role as a channel, and has begun to pay attention to the resource and energy role of the ocean itself. In the 70s of the 20th century, former Soviet Navy Marshal Gorshkov emphasized in his book "The Maritime Power of the State" that the ocean is a medium and sea route connecting the world, and has an important role in connectivity; at the same time, he also pointed out that because the ocean itself contains rich resources and energy, it has extraordinary significance for those countries that may face population or resource crises in the future, and even directly affects the survival and development of a country, so he predicted that the great value of the ocean itself will make the ocean become the main object of contention among various countries.
In the 21st century, all countries have generally realized that the ocean contains a large number of strategic resources needed for a country's development, and it is also the resource space with the most potential and value for development in the future. Therefore, there are also those who liken the ocean to the sixth continent that can be exploited by humans. The more this happens, the more fierce the competition for the sea itself will become, which is also an escalation of the current struggle for sea power.
The mode of contention for sea power has changed from a purely military struggle to a comprehensive struggle in various fields. Military competition and the struggle for force have long been the main means of sea power struggle, and the most important representative country is the United States. At the beginning of the 20th century, Mahan's theory of sea power became the theoretical guidance for the United States to develop maritime power, and Mahan's proposal to control the sea in war and the development of maritime military was based on the maritime economy. These two important views profoundly influenced the national politics of the United States at that time, and greatly promoted the construction of the US Navy at that time, especially after the development of World War II, when the United States became the world's largest maritime military power. Subsequently, we can see changes in the mode and space of contention from the readjustment of the US naval strategy. During the Cold War, the US Navy implemented the three principles of the Western strategic tradition through frequent and effective naval military operations: deterrence, forward deployment, and alliance. For this reason, the United States has long occupied the hegemony of the world's oceans. In 1982, US Secretary of the Navy Lehmann put forward a maritime strategy, which is actually not only a US naval strategy, but also involves the Air Force, Army and other services. After more than 20 years of refinement, in 2001, then US President George W. Bush delivered a famous speech at the graduation ceremony of the US Naval Academy, proposing that the US military strategy should be tilted toward the sea, and that in order to better cope with the threats of the 21 st century, the United States will integrate the sea, land, air, space, and information space, and the sea will provide a huge area of maneuver in this integrated combat space. So far, most of the important causes of changes in sea power have been changes in the military field. As a result, there has been a major change in the mode of contention for sea power, which has expanded from purely maritime military activities to the five-dimensional strategic space, and the comprehensive control and utilization of the five-dimensional strategic space has become a new mode of competition. Historically, today, a country's maritime military security has gone far beyond the military field itself and has covered the political, economic, scientific, technological, social, and cultural fields of the entire country. At the same time, maritime competition has evolved into a competition of comprehensive national strength.
The main body of the struggle for sea power has expanded from the main maritime powers to the global maritime countries. Since the 17th century, the rise of all great powers has been superimposed on the development of their maritime power. The change in the maritime order is also the result of maritime competition between major powers. Obviously, some maritime powers have long controlled the global maritime monopoly power, and then occupied a dominant position in the international order, and have built a whole set of maritime rules in the maritime field that is conducive to their own development. For hundreds of years, although the system has been constantly adjusted around military and hegemony, it still occupies a dominant position among maritime powers, and has long influenced the global maritime development pattern. For example, according to pre-Cold War statistics, there are more than 30 landlocked countries among the more than 160 countries in the world, and about 81% of the countries connected to the ocean, including more than 40 island countries and more than 90 coastal countries.
However, in the second half of the 20th century, the international situation developed in depth, the global balance of power continued to change, and this pattern dominated by major powers also began to change. In particular, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) designated 32.8% of the world's total marine area as the exclusive economic zone of coastal states and assigned them to coastal states for management, thus forming a redivision of maritime rights and interests and maritime spheres of influence worldwide. At the same time, maritime affairs have become an area of common concern to the international community, forming a new situation: not only major countries, but also relevant countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have joined the ranks of competition to safeguard and expand their maritime rights and interests and enhance their national development rights through maritime affairs.
The United States attaches great importance to maritime rights and interests, and relies on strong military strength to control them
The social level of the struggle for sea power is sinking, from the behavior of a single subject to the competition of multiple subjects, and the competition in which private organizations, social groups and the public participate together. The social hierarchy of ocean contention is sinking, which not only provides us with more opportunities, but also makes the situation of ocean contention more complicated. This has led to two phenomena: First, it is deeply involved in national maritime operations, and all countries generally recognize that the transport fleet, fishing fleet, and scientific research fleet are not only the main force in marine development, but also an important force in safeguarding national security. Gorshkov believed that merchant ships at sea should be considered as an integral part of a nation's maritime power with multiple capabilities, playing an extremely important role in both peacetime and wartime. In peacetime, the civilian team is the main force in the country's development of the marine economy and marine surveys, and in wartime, it is the core force to ensure the transportation of soldiers and materials. It is worth noting that there is a large private sector in the maritime forces of the world, not mainly the state, especially the transport and fishing fleets, which play a role far beyond the scope of private enterprises. For example, in the Yingrama Island War, the total number of civilian ships mobilized by both sides was as high as two-thirds of the ships participating in the war. In order to enable the power of civilian vessels to be used quickly when necessary, many countries have established relevant mobilization systems and formulated mobilization laws until now. For example, the RAND Corporation of the United States is a non-profit non-governmental organization, but many of its suggestions have been adopted by the US Government and become national policies, especially the national maritime policy; the British Institute for Strategic Studies was founded by the British academic community, and its members come from more than 80 countries, and its capacity as a non-governmental organization has profoundly influenced the maritime policy of Britain and even Europe.
The above shows that since the middle of the 20th century, the main body of countries participating in or even dominating ocean affairs and influencing maritime competition has indeed had the phenomenon of long-term social identity sinking, which can provide opportunities and development space for more people in society to pay attention to and participate in national ocean actions. However, it must be noted that because the maritime awareness of the whole people on the mainland has not yet reached the level of being comparable to that of Western countries, and the relevant social foundation is not perfect, it is possible to lose the opportunity for development in the process of sinking the social level.
The future development trend of the world's sea power
In the foreseeable future, global sea power will continue to maintain a development trend of competition over convergence. Because the ocean plays an irreplaceable role in world economic activities, is the basic strategic space for establishing and maintaining the international order, and has the significance of being a strategic commanding height in the evolution of the world pattern, the ocean will continue to be an important field of international competition, and all major strategic forces in the world will maintain a large-scale presence in the marine field. As a result, the competition for the oceans will continue and is likely to intensify.
In the interdependent and mutually constrained international relations of the 21st century, the ocean plays an irreplaceable and important role in the future world pattern of sharing glory and loss, and is the platform and carrier for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Although in international relations in the foreseeable future, the perfect conditions for building a community with a shared future are not yet available or fully in place, it cannot be ruled out that under certain conditions, some local maritime communities will appear in some regions, and may play a neutralizing and regulating role in certain non-overall issues in a certain sea area.
The contradictions and confrontations around sea power will be more of an alliance of multinational camps, replacing the traditional solution of a single country, and the future sea power struggle may focus on the western Pacific and East Asian seas. At present, there is NATO in the western Pacific waters, and in the East Asian waters, there are the ASEAN meeting, the Japan-led TPP, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in which China participates. In particular, there are many historical issues involved in the waters of East Asia, and it is one of the most likely focus areas for international maritime conflicts to erupt in the 21st century, such as the South China Sea issue, which has evolved or is evolving into a game between the mainland and other international strategic forces.
The exploration of the unknown space of the ocean will focus on the fields with practical application value to human society, and the game of marine science and technology has become the main field of the game of sea power, and will continue to influence the national affairs and political pattern. So far, there is still a huge unknown space in the marine field, and the exploration of the ocean by human beings is less than 5% of this field, and the research of marine science and technology will still be the focus of the international community in the future. The success of these explorations will, to a greater extent, determine the discourse power and status of the countries concerned in international maritime affairs, and affect the political pattern of international maritime affairs in the future.
Traditional security threats at sea will continue to be greater than non-traditional security threats, and attention should be paid to the rational use of military means. Since the formation of the international law of the sea system represented by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, although the number of frontal clashes between the military forces of various countries has been greatly reduced, non-traditional security threats are on the rise, and maritime disputes caused by political games will continue to become more intense in the future, and the maritime security situation will become more severe and complex than before. As far as the mainland is concerned, in the new historical period, China's maritime security situation has become more complicated, so it is necessary to pay attention to the rational use of military means.
Disclaimer: This article is transferred from Military Digest, and the original authors are Wang Xuehui and Yang Lijuan. The content of the article is the original author's personal point of view, and this official account is compiled/reprinted only to share and convey different views, if you have any objections, please contact us!
Transferred from丨Military Digest
Author丨Wang Xuehui, Yang Lijuan
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