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Sea power and influence
Book reviews International politics of pollution POLLUTION, POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW Tankers at Sea by R. Michael M’Gonigle and Mark W. Zacher of California Press, University Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1979, 394pp, f 9.50 This is perhaps one of the most important books on current international politics to be published in the past five years. To say this does not imply that this reviewer is an ‘ecofreak’ or that he has allowed his own interest in marine policy matters to warp his judgment as a general student of the development of international politics over the past 50 years or so. It is because the authors of this excellently researched if occasionally rather turgidly written book have approached their subject from the standpoint of observers of the whole process of contemporay international relations practice rather than theory; that they have set their whole subject in a historical background; that they have observed and taken into consideration the contemporary phenomenon in which the agents in any set of international political processes include a whole series of agents undreamt of in international relations standard ranging from international theory, political organizations such as IMCO at one end of the spectrum to nongovernmental organizations at the other, ranging from national interest multinational through groups industrial, commercial and financial, corporations to transnational organizations representing these industrial, commercial or financial interests such as the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF), the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPECA), the CRISTAL and TOVALOP
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organizations and so on. They have recognized too that in most cases the individual states are far from the unitary actors they are represented as being, usually thought of and, via their public relations and policy spokesmen, would have the rest of the world believe them to be. The argument that these two authors put forward is subtle and grounded on a great deal of original research. They point out how government standpoints on general issues can change drastically with changing estimates of their own short-term interests as they perceive them and as they are impressed on them by interests and interest groups to whose pressures and arguments they are at different times either vulnerable or sympathetic. They show how differing internal political processes make some countries, the USA and the UK, for example, whose electorates expect them to play major ‘initiatory roles’ in international politics, take action after major pollution disasters such as the Argo Mechant (USA 1976)
or the Torrey Canyon (UK 1967), where others like the Merula (Chile 1975) and the Urquilu (off Spain) have had no effect on their countries’ international policy or on the politics of IMCO whatever. Perhaps the only criticism to which the authors are vulnerable is that their otherwise commendable commitment to the advance of the control of pollution makes them less than equalhanded in their description and evaluation of the interests and activities of the oil companies. As major sources of oil pollution they are inevitably the villains of the story, and the commercial, financial and economic inhibitions on their action are perhaps given less value than they should be, as are the burden of energy costs (including transportation costs) on the economies of the industrially developed countries. But in general this volume can be commended as one of the most important and significant books on international politics in general and marine policy in particular to be published in the past five years.
Donald C. Watt Professor of International History LSE London, UK
Control of the oceans SEA POWER AND INFLUENCE Old Issues and New Challenges edited by jonathan Alford published for the International Institute for Strategic Studies by Gower and Famborough, Osmun, Allanheld, Hants and Montclair, New Jersey, 1980,22Opp, f9.50 The International Institute for Strategic Studies has, since its inception in 1958, become an indispensable and authoritative source of information on current military and strategic affairs. Its house journals and the series of pamphlets published as Adelphi Papers are convenient periodic publications, and a number of book-length ‘Studies
in International Security’ have added importantly to the usefulness of its work. A new series of hard-backs has now been started, as the ‘Adelphi Library’, and Sea Power and Inji’uence is the second to be published. Other volumes deal with Energy and Security, Arms Control and Military Force and The Military Impact of New Technology. The main distinguishing characteristic of this series is that they bring together, in one set of covers, previously published material which illumines a general theme: thus, this present volume consists of contributions from five earlier Adelphi Papers, an article from Survival and an analysis of the East-West balance at sea from The Military Balance. It is a convenient
MARINE POLICY April 1981
Book reviews
format for enthusiasts and for libraries: not everybody needs or wants the full range of Adelphi Papers (notwithstanding that one of their principal virtues is that they provide wide coverage of salient topics) even though they would nevertheless have found it cheaper to buy the separate contributions. The utility of having all the pieces to hand probably outweighs that marginal, and perhaps nominal, gain. Power and influence at sea is, in any event, a sufficiently important topic to justify the renewed attention which republication implies. As Jonathan Alford says, in his editorial introduction, ‘. . . the essential truth remains that the use of the sea remains vital to Western security and peripheral to the Soviet Union. As a supremely continental power, the Soviet Union can, if necessary, endure in war with little of the worlds oceans under her control; the Western powers, separated by sea and critically dependent on maritime traffic for reinforcement and for resupply, cannot expect to survive for long if denied its use’ (p 2).
New challenges One of the most interesting aspects of the contributions which have been selected is the extent to which emphasis is given to the increasing use of the seas, and to the consequentially increasing possibilities that international conflicts will arise over these novel areas of concern. The first section of the book, ‘The new environment’, and the contribution by Barry Buzan, ‘A sea of troubles’, concentrate on this aspect of sea power and influence; the section on ‘Super-powers and navies’, and Admiral Bagley’s analysis of ‘Sea power and Western security’ concentrate, on the other hand, on the military instrumentalities of power. The third section, ‘Competition and conflict’, looks at what competitions and conflicts may come to look like, principally in certain crucial geographic areas, and Richard Haas analyses naval arms limitation possibilities in the Indian Ocean area. Some pieces are controversial, in the sense that they raise questions rather than proffer solutions or, conversely, offer particular solutions, as Admiral
MARINE POLICY April 1981
Bagley does, which can be argued about. What, commonly, they suggest is that a good deal of fundamental thinking has to be done to establish how the West collectively should contrive to respond to the new challenges of technology, legal and economic regimes, and military competition. These new perspectives have
to be applied to an environment which is so familiar and so much taken for granted as a Western preserve that it has been in some danger of neglect.
Peter Nailor Royal Naval College Greenwich, UK
Antarctic treaty - a gloomy view ANTARCTICA RESOURCES by Barbara
AND ITS
Mitchell and Jon Tinker
EarthscarVlnternational Institute for Environment and Development, London, 1979,94 pp and appendix This monograph was first prepared as a press briefing document for a meeting of the Antarctic Treaty powers in September 1979. These nations, which decide matters relating to the Antarctic, discussed their draft treaty on the conservation of the Antarctic marine living resources. This information indicates a great deal about the present monograph. It is written in a neat, economical style with no superfluous words. It crams a great deal of information into comparatively few pages. It reads, in fact, more like a school textbook, with key words and phrases underlined, and it is too heavy going for light reading. It is not suitable for light relaxed reading and will not appeal to the so-called general reader. But it is excellent as a small reference book, especially for persons wanting to get important information quickly. The monograph is in three parts. The first part records the usual basic knowledge on the Antarctic’s geology, history and involvement in it by scientists. The text is aided by seven maps and diagrams. (The text is also broken up by some photographs but these add little to the text.) The second and third parts are the key pages. The second part deals with the Antarctic’s living and non-living resources. In living resources, krill (small crustaceans) are currently the
focal point for international attention because it is believed that krill catching could, in theory, triple the world’s total fish catch. Particular attention is devoted in this monograph to krill. In non-living resources, the major one under consideration is oil, particularly off the Antarctic’s coast. This, too, is well covered in the monograph. In monograph’s with the keeping thoroughness, other fringe resources are also covered, such as tourism and the export of ice to the Middle East.
Signs of age The third part deals with the Antarctic’s legal and political environment. The Antarctic is governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, whose parties all have either pre-1959 claims to part of the continent or have a scientific interest in it or both. The treaty, a masterpiece given the prevailing cold war in the warmer parts of the globe, brought together almost all the major communist and Western nations and got them to agree that the continent should be used for scientific purposes only (making the continent the world’s first nuclear weapon free zone) and freezing all territorial claims. The treaty, as this monograph points out, is now showing signs of age. It was concluded at a time when the Antarctic was not considered as a major potential source of resources, and it was written by nations which now form a minority of the world’s nations; no Third World nation has been involved in deciding the continent’s future. The monograph pays particular attention to the work leading up to the finalization of the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
163
162
organizations and so on. They have recognized too that in most cases the individual states are far from the unitary actors they are represented as being, usually thought of and, via their public relations and policy spokesmen, would have the rest of the world believe them to be. The argument that these two authors put forward is subtle and grounded on a great deal of original research. They point out how government standpoints on general issues can change drastically with changing estimates of their own short-term interests as they perceive them and as they are impressed on them by interests and interest groups to whose pressures and arguments they are at different times either vulnerable or sympathetic. They show how differing internal political processes make some countries, the USA and the UK, for example, whose electorates expect them to play major ‘initiatory roles’ in international politics, take action after major pollution disasters such as the Argo Mechant (USA 1976)
or the Torrey Canyon (UK 1967), where others like the Merula (Chile 1975) and the Urquilu (off Spain) have had no effect on their countries’ international policy or on the politics of IMCO whatever. Perhaps the only criticism to which the authors are vulnerable is that their otherwise commendable commitment to the advance of the control of pollution makes them less than equalhanded in their description and evaluation of the interests and activities of the oil companies. As major sources of oil pollution they are inevitably the villains of the story, and the commercial, financial and economic inhibitions on their action are perhaps given less value than they should be, as are the burden of energy costs (including transportation costs) on the economies of the industrially developed countries. But in general this volume can be commended as one of the most important and significant books on international politics in general and marine policy in particular to be published in the past five years.
Donald C. Watt Professor of International History LSE London, UK
Control of the oceans SEA POWER AND INFLUENCE Old Issues and New Challenges edited by jonathan Alford published for the International Institute for Strategic Studies by Gower and Famborough, Osmun, Allanheld, Hants and Montclair, New Jersey, 1980,22Opp, f9.50 The International Institute for Strategic Studies has, since its inception in 1958, become an indispensable and authoritative source of information on current military and strategic affairs. Its house journals and the series of pamphlets published as Adelphi Papers are convenient periodic publications, and a number of book-length ‘Studies
in International Security’ have added importantly to the usefulness of its work. A new series of hard-backs has now been started, as the ‘Adelphi Library’, and Sea Power and Inji’uence is the second to be published. Other volumes deal with Energy and Security, Arms Control and Military Force and The Military Impact of New Technology. The main distinguishing characteristic of this series is that they bring together, in one set of covers, previously published material which illumines a general theme: thus, this present volume consists of contributions from five earlier Adelphi Papers, an article from Survival and an analysis of the East-West balance at sea from The Military Balance. It is a convenient
MARINE POLICY April 1981
Book reviews
format for enthusiasts and for libraries: not everybody needs or wants the full range of Adelphi Papers (notwithstanding that one of their principal virtues is that they provide wide coverage of salient topics) even though they would nevertheless have found it cheaper to buy the separate contributions. The utility of having all the pieces to hand probably outweighs that marginal, and perhaps nominal, gain. Power and influence at sea is, in any event, a sufficiently important topic to justify the renewed attention which republication implies. As Jonathan Alford says, in his editorial introduction, ‘. . . the essential truth remains that the use of the sea remains vital to Western security and peripheral to the Soviet Union. As a supremely continental power, the Soviet Union can, if necessary, endure in war with little of the worlds oceans under her control; the Western powers, separated by sea and critically dependent on maritime traffic for reinforcement and for resupply, cannot expect to survive for long if denied its use’ (p 2).
New challenges One of the most interesting aspects of the contributions which have been selected is the extent to which emphasis is given to the increasing use of the seas, and to the consequentially increasing possibilities that international conflicts will arise over these novel areas of concern. The first section of the book, ‘The new environment’, and the contribution by Barry Buzan, ‘A sea of troubles’, concentrate on this aspect of sea power and influence; the section on ‘Super-powers and navies’, and Admiral Bagley’s analysis of ‘Sea power and Western security’ concentrate, on the other hand, on the military instrumentalities of power. The third section, ‘Competition and conflict’, looks at what competitions and conflicts may come to look like, principally in certain crucial geographic areas, and Richard Haas analyses naval arms limitation possibilities in the Indian Ocean area. Some pieces are controversial, in the sense that they raise questions rather than proffer solutions or, conversely, offer particular solutions, as Admiral
MARINE POLICY April 1981
Bagley does, which can be argued about. What, commonly, they suggest is that a good deal of fundamental thinking has to be done to establish how the West collectively should contrive to respond to the new challenges of technology, legal and economic regimes, and military competition. These new perspectives have
to be applied to an environment which is so familiar and so much taken for granted as a Western preserve that it has been in some danger of neglect.
Peter Nailor Royal Naval College Greenwich, UK
Antarctic treaty - a gloomy view ANTARCTICA RESOURCES by Barbara
AND ITS
Mitchell and Jon Tinker
EarthscarVlnternational Institute for Environment and Development, London, 1979,94 pp and appendix This monograph was first prepared as a press briefing document for a meeting of the Antarctic Treaty powers in September 1979. These nations, which decide matters relating to the Antarctic, discussed their draft treaty on the conservation of the Antarctic marine living resources. This information indicates a great deal about the present monograph. It is written in a neat, economical style with no superfluous words. It crams a great deal of information into comparatively few pages. It reads, in fact, more like a school textbook, with key words and phrases underlined, and it is too heavy going for light reading. It is not suitable for light relaxed reading and will not appeal to the so-called general reader. But it is excellent as a small reference book, especially for persons wanting to get important information quickly. The monograph is in three parts. The first part records the usual basic knowledge on the Antarctic’s geology, history and involvement in it by scientists. The text is aided by seven maps and diagrams. (The text is also broken up by some photographs but these add little to the text.) The second and third parts are the key pages. The second part deals with the Antarctic’s living and non-living resources. In living resources, krill (small crustaceans) are currently the
focal point for international attention because it is believed that krill catching could, in theory, triple the world’s total fish catch. Particular attention is devoted in this monograph to krill. In non-living resources, the major one under consideration is oil, particularly off the Antarctic’s coast. This, too, is well covered in the monograph. In monograph’s with the keeping thoroughness, other fringe resources are also covered, such as tourism and the export of ice to the Middle East.
Signs of age The third part deals with the Antarctic’s legal and political environment. The Antarctic is governed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, whose parties all have either pre-1959 claims to part of the continent or have a scientific interest in it or both. The treaty, a masterpiece given the prevailing cold war in the warmer parts of the globe, brought together almost all the major communist and Western nations and got them to agree that the continent should be used for scientific purposes only (making the continent the world’s first nuclear weapon free zone) and freezing all territorial claims. The treaty, as this monograph points out, is now showing signs of age. It was concluded at a time when the Antarctic was not considered as a major potential source of resources, and it was written by nations which now form a minority of the world’s nations; no Third World nation has been involved in deciding the continent’s future. The monograph pays particular attention to the work leading up to the finalization of the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
163