15 February 2008
Humanitarian Aid Key Component of Navy’s New Maritime Strategy
Efforts include countering piracy, smuggling, drug and human trafficking
Washington -- The familiar white U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy, bearing the Red Cross emblem on its hull, will visit Southeast Asia and the western Pacific this summer to provide humanitarian assistance.
International medical, dental and engineering teams and nongovernmental groups participating in Pacific Partnership 2008 have signed on to minister to those in need during Mercy's port calls.
The trip mirrors a similar one by the USS Peleliu in 2007 to the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands, and an earlier Mercy trip to the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh in 2006. The Peleliu treated 31,600 patients and the Mercy had 200,000 patients.
The outreach of these ships is phenomenal.
The USNS Comfort, also a hospital ship, toured Latin America in 2007 treating 98,650 patients. Additionally, 32,320 people were immunized; more than 28,000 students received medical training; more than 17,700 veterinary calls were made; nearly 133,000 vaccines and pharmaceuticals dispensed; and 24,240 eyeglasses were given out through Lions Club International.
During its four-month deployment with port visits that included Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad, Haiti, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize, the Comfort provided emergency relief to Nicaragua in the wake of Hurricane Felix and to Peru after a major earthquake in August 2007. Navy personnel also repaired hospitals, clinics, schools, and generators.
These broad humanitarian missions designed to relieve suffering and build solid international partnerships form one of the key pillars of the Navy’s new “Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.”
While the Navy already was primed to respond to disaster, provide relief aid and conduct humanitarian missions whenever and wherever called, the new element of the strategy is that it will be offered proactively instead of only when needed. Consequently, the Navy anticipates sending out one of these kinds of ships annually.
It has been more than 20 years since the Navy revamped its strategy, and this latest version emphasizes the need for conducting confidence- and security-building measures with and among nations through collective maritime endeavors against common threats such as piracy, smuggling, terrorism and weapons proliferation. A key component must be multilateral “cooperation in enforcing the rule of law in the maritime domain.”
The new strategy embraces the reality that not only does a major war have the potential to threaten security and prosperity, but so do irregular or persistent regional conflicts, spasms of terrorism, recurrent natural disaster and lawlessness. There is new emphasis on preventing wars and building partnerships because, as the document states, the United States and its partners are “competing for global influence in an era in which they are unlikely to be fully at war or ... at peace.”
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS ARE KEY TO SUCCESS
International partnerships, based on mutual respect and understanding, evolve over time. The strategy recognizes the importance these partnerships hold for global maritime security as well as the need to integrate the diplomatic and military elements that make them possible.
Ambassador Peter Chaveas told America.gov that the good work that is being carried out off the Gulf of Guinea by the Africa Partnership Station initiative is an example of how all this plays out.
The USS Fort McHenry is in the region on a seven-month international training and humanitarian aid mission that involves joint military services, interagency, allied and nongovernmental organization personnel. Chaveas, who is director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, says that when a Navy vessel first arrives, there is a tendency for inflammatory local media reports to pop up with rampant speculation about its intentions. But once interaction occurs with the ship’s crew, a very different impression results.
This is not an aircraft carrier asserting itself, he says. “It’s a very different kind of presence; it’s about building relationships and building capacity.”
Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen told members of Congress recently that “cooperative engagement of navies and coast guards throughout the world is the organizing principle of the new maritime strategy.”
The strategy is predicated on the fact that global prosperity and security depend on freedom of navigation. Because 90 percent of all trade -- including two-thirds of the world’s oil -- moves by sea, maritime security is paramount. Consequently, the strategy emphasizes the importance of “speed, flexibility, agility and scalability of maritime forces.”
And, as Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead said in 2007 congressional testimony, “preventing war is preferable to fighting wars.” Doing so will require the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard to work seamlessly to patrol the seas, deter potential threats, project power when necessary and periodically establish a forward presence in troubled regions. Maritime security even includes the deployment of a riverine force in Iraq.
In support of the global war on terrorism, the strategy says, wherever and whenever possible “forward-deployed maritime forces will isolate, capture, or destroy terrorists, their infrastructure, resources and sanctuaries, preferably in conjunction with coalition partners.”
Additional details about the new maritime strategy are available on the Navy’s Web site.
