Terrorists Firing Missiles at Cargo Ships Are a Geopolitical Threat
The threat is much bigger than just a few rebel terrorists.
by FRANCIS P. SEMPA
December 29, 2023, 11:15 PM
Cargo ship sailing in the Red Sea (CNN-News18/YouTube)
Writing in the National Interest, James Holmes, the J.C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and one of our nation’s most perceptive geopolitical thinkers, senses trouble ahead for the world’s maritime powers in reading a report from U.S. Central Command that Yemeni rebels fired an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) at the bulk cargo ship Unity Explorer (owned by the United Kingdom and flying a Bahamanian flag) in the Red Sea. It was one of several attacks on commercial ships by Houthi rebels — attacks which Central Command characterized as “a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security” and that Shashank Joshi, defense editor of the Economist, calls a “threat to international shipping.” But, as Holmes points out, the threat may be much greater. (RELATED: Iran Is Backing Attacks Against US Troops)
Holmes suggests that the ASBM used by Yemeni rebels a few days ago is likely traceable to Iran and China. China’s PLA, Holmes points out, has a monopoly on ASBMs, noting that the “DF-21D and DF-26 missiles anchor China’s anti-access and area-denial network” which enables Chinese commanders “to strike . . . moving ships at sea up to 2,000 nautical miles distant.” Holmes believes that Chinese Communist Party leaders are “proliferating ASBMs around the Eurasian perimeter” for sound geopolitical reasons. To understand those reasons it is necessary to revisit the classical geopolitical writings of one Briton and two Americans: Halford Mackinder, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and Nicholas Spykman.
Eurasia Is Central to Geopolitics
Mackinder, Mahan, and Spykman approached global geopolitics from the insular perspective of their maritime countries. Although they differed in some aspects of geopolitical thought, they agreed on the centrality of the Eurasian supercontinent to world politics. (READ MORE: This Is Why Putin Thinks Victory in Ukraine Is Inevitable)
https://spectator.org/terrorists-firing-missiles-at-cargo-ships-are-a-geopolitical-threat/
