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By
T.D. KILVERT-JONES
T.D.
Kilvert-Jones, a career British Army officer, is a program manager,
historian, and analyst with Universal Systems and Technology Systems in
Fairfax, Va.
Contemporary
national strategy is encapsulated in the concepts of forward presence
and forward engagement, a strategy that is as valid in peacetime as it
is in wartime. The Coast Guard sustains a vital capability to mount
active and acceptable operations beyond U.S. coastal waters in a posture
that directly supports the process of peacetime military engagement.
To
meet just some new challenges during the first six months of 1999, USCG
cutters were deployed to the Mediterranean in support of NATO Operation
Allied Force and on a six-month Pacific Rim deployment with the Navy's
USS Constellation Carrier Battle Group. These recent deployments are in
addition to innumerable other overseas tasks related to the Coast
Guard's international engagement mission. One example is the overseas
training program conducted by the Coast Guard's Mobile Training Teams (MTTs)--which
now reach out to more than 110 countries. Last year alone, 89 MTTs
visited 46 countries. The MTTs provide training in tactics, techniques,
and procedures in areas such as maritime law enforcement and the conduct
of search-and-rescue missions. Using the U.S. Coast Guard's legislative
code as a model, higher-level MTTs conduct policy-level training with
the USCG's counterparts.
A
Maritime, Multimission Force
The
Coast Guard deals with issues that lie both geographically and
conceptually in the zone where domestic and international activities
converge, and where the United States has significant national security
concerns. The most challenging of the broad range of maritime security
missions that the Coast Guard performs--those that involve defense of
U.S. national sovereignty--have had a profound effect on its operational
outlook and organization.
The
Coast Guard can participate with ease in smaller-scale international
contingency operations when other U.S. agencies might not be welcome--e.g.,
in peace enforcement, humanitarian operations, disaster relief, and
counter-drug operations. Because of its more benign character, the Coast
Guard is usually accepted by foreign nonmilitary institutions and civil
authorities, whereas the other U.S. armed forces might be perceived as a
threat. It can deploy into areas where other representation--from either
the United States or its closest allies--might be at the least unwelcome
and at worst highly provocative.
The
Coast Guard also can "speak the language" of both civil and
military organizations--an important capability as the United States
looks to civil entities for assistance and expertise in dealing with
complex transnational and nontraditional missions such as humanitarian
operations or counternarcotics missions. This makes the Coast Guard a
highly flexible tool in the pursuit of America's foreign policy
objectives.
Unlike
the other U.S. armed forces, the Coast Guard has a law-enforcement role,
which it executes on a global scale--and which, along with its
humanitarian and maritime safety roles, is its dominant focus in
peacetime. In recent years, the evident success of the U.S. Coast Guard
in a range of mission areas has inspired many other countries to form
similar independent maritime-enforcement organizations. The Coast
Guard's key position in the creation of such enforcement organizations
gives it a natural relationship with those emerging forces, thus making
subsequent cooperation on operations both easier and more effective.
Providing
Hemispheric National Security
As
a law-enforcement agency and an armed service, the Coast Guard has
traditionally embraced a concept of national security far wider than its
numerous national defense missions. The recently codified concept known
as Hemispheric Maritime Security recognizes that all Coast Guard
roles--whether rescuing distressed mariners, interdicting drug
smugglers, combating major oil spills, or conducting naval warfare
missions in support of a Unified CINC (commander in chief)--contribute
directly to the economic, environmental, and military security of the
nation. More than simply "guarding the coast," the Coast Guard
has broad responsibilities for safeguarding the "global
commons," particularly in those areas that affect the well-being or
security of the United States.
Because
of America's dependence upon the sea, the maintenance of an agency or
force focused on tasks beyond those strictly naval is in-evitable. The
Coast Guard is responsible for protecting U.S. national sovereignty and
enforcing America's maritime laws, representing the nation's interests
and authority on and in U.S. waters, assuring the safety of life and
property, protecting the environment, and serving in time of war as one
of the nation's armed services. All of these responsibilities overlap at
various points with those of other federal, state, and local agencies.
By
combining a law-enforcement authority with a military capability, the
United States derives significant benefits from the Coast Guard's unique
maritime capabilities, which are not duplicated elsewhere in the
government--or in the private sector. Some of the Coast Guard's duties
are associated with national-level concerns such as upholding U.S.
sovereignty and include maritime law enforcement in both domestic and
international waters as well as national-defense missions per se. These
roles are essentially military and quasi-military in character, and thus
demand that the Coast Guard be an implementer of America's national
power, not a local or state agency nor a mere adjunct to the overall
Federal bureaucracy.
While
usually busy with its civil tasks, the Coast Guard remains a naval
force-in-being. Most of its cutters, boats, and aircraft have military
as well as civilian mission capabilities. Coast Guard vessels carry
weapons and helicopters and can be fitted with additional electronics
and weapon systems. Moreover, their crews are trained to perform
specific militarily essential tasks. With some 40 cutters of significant
size, the future Coast Guard will have about a third--or, in some
projections, about one-half--as many surface combatants as the U.S.
Navy. To give some idea of the scale involved, the 1998 British Defence
Review set the size of the British Royal Navy surface force at 32
destroyers and frigates. That surface force is currently the largest and
most capable in Western Europe.
The
Coast Guard's expertise in military support tasks and in small ship and
boat operations, particularly in littoral waters, allows the service to
conduct increasingly specialized maritime missions. An example of this
would be the Coast Guard's capability to support embargo and blockade
operations. The skills honed in boarding and inspecting ships and their
cargoes in domestic waters are directly applicable to the enforcement of
international economic sanctions. Similarly, because of its experience
in waterways management, port security, and overall Maritime Defense
Zone operations, the Coast Guard has been called upon to export these
capabilities overseas during crises and conflicts, including Operations
Desert Shield and Desert Storm and the U.S. naval/military operations
around Haiti and in the Adriatic.
U.S.
Global Engagement Policy
Outside
U.S. coastal waters, the Coast Guard's role as an instrument of national
policy and hemispheric maritime security is becoming ever more
important. A central focus of U.S. national-security strategy is to
promote democracy abroad, support civil control of the military, build
trust and friendship with former adversaries, and promote economic
prosperity both at home and overseas. America's friends face the same
transnational dangers that threaten U.S. interests. The Coast Guard's
involvement in the elimination of regional-security threats, the
promotion of international cooperation, and the protection of maritime
interests are key elements in a U.S. policy of global engagement and
active and acceptable forward presence. As Capt. John E. Crowley,
commanding officer of the medium-endurance cutter USCGC Legare, reported
in his post-deployment report on the 1997 summer deployment to the U.S.
European Command:
"...
Legare was a role model for developing countries' maritime services. ...
Our peacetime engagement efforts resulted in meeting 400 professionals
in 56 sessions. ... In Kaliningrad, more than 5,000 visitors lined the
pier to see the Legare and speak English to the crew; all in all, we
introduced the U.S. Coast Guard to more than 26,000 people over the
summer."
In
some areas of the world, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units have been
barred from participating in certain operations even as Coast Guard
forces continued to be invited in--a true hallmark of active and
acceptable presence. During the Haitian political crisis in early 1994,
for example, a volatile crowd turned away a Navy amphibious ship from
Port-au-Prince. The Coast Guard was able to keep open an important
communications channel to Haitian political and security officials.
With
some 70 percent of the world's navies now employed on essentially coast
guard tasks, the continued and enhanced peacetime international
engagement mission played by the U.S. Coast Guard is likely to generate
still greater benefits for the nation. The active international-training
programs conducted both in the United States (at the USCG Academy) and
overseas (by the MMTs) demonstrate that the Coast Guard is the
"right force" to conduct such a vital outreach program. As a
related part of this process, between 300 and 350 students train
annually in each of several International Military Education Training
events including a Coast Guard International Maritime Officers course
that examines a broad range of Coast Guard operations and leadership
issues. Through its Mobile Training Teams, the Coast Guard is able to
train friends and allies in such important missions as counterterrorism,
force protection, search and rescue, and waterway law enforcement. Rear
Adm. Jay A. Campbell, USN, then the director of plans and policy at the
U.S. European Command, commented in 1996 that "the Coast Guard was
the right force to reach the majority of these navies, especially the
Partnership for Peace navies. What these countries need and can afford
is Coast Guard-type missions and associated force structures. The Coast
Guard is an excellent example of how to merge together an agency with
military and civilian duties."
"The
Best Value of Any Institution"
Much
more than a "force multiplier," the Coast Guard offers unique
capabilities and performs vital and complementary roles that are
increasingly relied upon by the president, the State Department, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the unified and regional CINCs. The Coast
Guard clearly provides an important capability in the nation's foreign
policy and national security "tool kit." As Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright stated at a recent U.S. Coast Guard Academy
graduation, "The vast majority of us understand that the Coast
Guard provides the best value of any institution in our
government."
The
need to maintain and expand its capacity for international engagement
will shape the Coast Guard in the next century. That engagement will
continue to entail traditional training missions, the enforcement of
U.S. and international laws on the high seas, contacts with foreign
coast guards and navies, and cooperation with (and support of) the U.S.
Navy in both peace and war. The importance of each of these roles is
likely to grow in the coming decades. The Coast Guard remains an
effective model for foreign-maritime enforcement services because it is
not generally seen as an instrument of military power projection.
The
Coast Guard--if properly equipped and funded--will undoubtedly continue
to meet its responsibilities and support a policy of forward en-gagement
and enlargement in the international arena both with allies and with
transitional states that may be seeking U.S. assistance and guidance.
The service also will continue to be well-positioned to use its power
judiciously against failing or rogue states that continue to challenge
the interests of the United States on the world's oceans. Ultimately,
fiscal realities and the need to be fully interoperable with other
national agencies will determine how effectively the Coast Guard will be
in meeting new global challenges in the next century.
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