Choke Points of Power:decline of western dominance on shipping lanes vital

[Major Shaitan Singh]

On one side, there is the US in decline. On the other, there is an emerging China.In the middle, there are the maritime routes crucial for the export of oil, such as the Strait of Hormuz in the Arabian Gulf.

Ocean-borne trade is the foundation of the global economy, and the Middle East is a hub for world shipping. The sea lanes in this region narrow into what are called choke points, which are keys to regional control.

"After the war [World War II], the US was in a position essentially to work out ways to organise and control the world .... It's control. You want to control because it does yield a substantial measure of world control," says Noam Chomsky, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.About 20 per cent of the world's oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The rivalry between Iran, Israel and the US make it a flashpoint.To the southwest, the Gulf of Aden ends at the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a hunting ground for Somali pirates, and pirate hunters.
Both are part of an ongoing drama which hints at an unravelling of Western domination in the area.

To the north, the Suez Canal is the gateway to the Mediterranean. For decades the West controlled Egypt and the canal.
But all this is changing.

"After 500 years of Western domination, we are slowly going back to an age of indigenous control .... The US navy has gone from 586 warships during the Reagan era to 286 warships now," says Robert D Kaplan, of the Center for a New American Security.

There are new players and new agendas in the Middle East that need the region and its oil. Their ships have multiplied and their influence grown. And the interests of the Chinese now brush against those of the Americans.

From Libya to Iran, from the waters of the Mediterranean to the pirate coast of Somalia, a new great game for control is unfolding.

Al Jazeera spent three years documenting the West's declining control of the strategic waterways of the Middle East. They discovered a region in flux - with new players both locally and globally - who want in. The focus, as always, is oil.

link to the documentary The Choke Points of Power - Al Jazeera World - Al Jazeera English

 

[Silverblaze]

Severely underestimate the US hegemony. None of these countries can challenge the US militarily.

 

[KAL-EL]

Severely underestimate the US hegemony. None of these countries can challenge the US militarily.

You know, it's quite interesting. if an extraterrestrial visited earth, and the very first thing it read were some of the posts in this forum, it would come thinking the US military was very primitive. Not specifically referring to Major Shaitan Singh's post. Just some of the stuff I've observed.

 

[Alienware]

You know, it's quite interesting. if an extraterrestrial visited earth, and the very first thing it read were some of the posts in this forum, it would come thinking the US military was very primitive. Not specifically referring to Major Shaitan Singh's post. Just some of the stuff I've observed.

And when that extraterrestrials ''buddies' arrive in their spaceships to harvest humans - who will the worlds governments look to for answers and protection? The USA of course.

Lets face it, if ever aliens did invade earth, the world will look to the USA for military leadership, not China, India, the European Union (UK & France) or Russia.

Anyway, to the original subject. Western maritime power is far from 'declining', US naval superiority is so far ahead its awe inspiring - even the maritime expeditionary capabilities of the USA's allies (Britain and France) are superior to the rest of the worlds.

Russia, China and India only maintain naval forces capable of regional power projection. We could not threaten western interests in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world even if we wanted too.

 

[BoQ77]

Now we are hearing that US has the plan to shift 60% of their air/navy to the shipping lanes in our region.
India also is interested in the same move ... so does Russia
Which is the initial reason ?

A little over a fortnight before China conducted sea trials for its first aircraft carrier, an Indian naval ship slipped into the South China Sea.

INS Airavat, an amphibious assault vessel designed to launch troops on enemy beaches, was on a show-the-flag mission in July when it was challenged as it sailed from Vietnam’s Nha Trang port near the deep-water harbour of Cam Ranh Bay.

A caller identifying himself as an official of the Chinese navy warned the ship on an open radio channel that it was entering Chinese waters as it steamed towards the Vietnamese port of Haiphong, the Indian foreign ministry said.

Nothing happened, the ship sailed on, and both India and China have since played down the incident, with New Delhi saying the vessel was well within international waters in the South China Sea and that there was no confrontation.

China’s foreign ministry also dismissed the report, saying there was no truth to it.