5 - Political Components of Maritime Power

Summary

Diplomacy is fundamental to states and critical for the conduct of international relations. It is exercised to further national interests, consolidate existing relationships, or to avert a crisis/conflict and can be invoked at any time across the spectrum of cordial-adverse relationship. There is a symbiotic relationship between the state and its navy since both operate in a partnership for furtherance of national interests. States have integrated diplomacy with their navies and have found this instrument of military power a useful means to exhibit goodwill, provide humanitarian assistance, showcase technological prowess, build alliances, and for the demonstration of coercive power. In that context, navies plan and train for the entire spectrum of diplomatic activities from coercion, presence, friendship missions and disaster relief operations.

Historically, seas and oceans have facilitated movement of people, cultures, ideas, religion, and trade resulting in growth of maritime enterprise. States have also transported state power, both coercive and benign, beyond national shores through the medium of the sea. Naval diplomacy has been in vogue and practice since ancient times and was exercised by the Greeks and Romans in the Mediterranean and Cholas in India, Srivijaya in Southeast Asia and by several dynasties in China in furtherance of national interests, be it to appease powerful kingdoms, enhance trade, safeguard sea lanes, and also in its coercive format of “gunboat” diplomacy. For instance, the Chola king Rajendra Choladeva I dispatched a powerful naval fleet to Southeast Asia targeted against Srivijaya kings ostensibly to protect own trade and maritime interests. As part of diplomacy, the Srivijaya kings had sent embassies to India and China with precious gifts for the rulers and also built Buddhist vihara (temples) in these kingdoms as goodwill gestures and also to seek protection against attack by powerful neighbours. In China, the Ming rulers dispatched naval fleets to establish trade links and in its coercive construct established influence in some countries in Southeast Asia and in the Indian Ocean. In the 21st century navies continue to be the vanguard of various political roles and missions that militaries perform during peacetime.

The political milieu of maritime power serves the state in several noteworthy dimensions. The navies possess a unique profile of being instruments that are most suitable for projecting power and influence in special dimensions over distant lands.