The Role of Sea Power in International Trade Essay

Introduction

The ability of one country to influence another economically, politically, and militarily has in the past heavily depended on sea power as the other part of the soldiers and the army were not strategic. In this essay, it will then be important to analyze the interactions of trade and naval power¹.

To discuss how sea power was used to influence national strategies, economists have been using various economic models such as the gravity model of trade and the comparative advantage which controls the geographic, economic, and political factors.

Theoretically and in the real sense, military conflicts among warring countries are expected to reduce trade through the established embargoes and disruptions. However, in contrast to the expectations of many, sometimes warring between two nations may not influence international trade if the countries have very minimal global reach (Penubarti & Ward, 2000).

Seapower

The historical influence that the marines or the navy has had on international trade and the complications in comparing measures of sea power has been issues of discussion in the past. The links between sea power and trade have been an issue and how navy in the past has influenced maritime trade.

As we focus on the warring nations, we shall therefore focus on how power projections² have affected international trade in the past. The strategies used on the other hand were designed in such a way that they could connect the trading links between the country and her allies and also to her neutral countries.

In doing so, this reduced the level of both military and civil goods available to support any of the enemy’s endeavors. The navies were also doing this in order to protect their own trade in a bid to boost trade between their countries and her allies.

One of the most known forms of economic combat that has been used by the navy is the strategy of guerre de course. This strategy is usually aimed at raiding and destroying the commerce systems of the enemy country.

It is a more preferred strategy by nations which feel inferior and whose own trade and commerce felt threatened by a more powerful navy. Instances where this technique has been used includes the fledging of the US navy against the British early in the year 1862, the French also did the same against the British in the 19^th and 20^th centuries and the Germans against the allied powers during the two world wars³.

The use of these techniques was in contrast to the expected history where the navies used to fight for show of power. in this case, the navy was fighting in order to make the trade immobile. In this case, by limiting the other country’s export would increase your exports to another country (Bartholomees, 2008).

Major forces which were encouraging the use of this technique particularly by the French on the British were its dependence on international food supplies. The navies viewed that may be by inducing food shortages; social and labor unrests would arise in England thus weakening the military in the long run.

Technological changes also influenced the decisions to engage in commerce raiding. With the creation and the introduction of torpedo boats and submarines in the navy, this made the guerre de course even more easy and effective.

The typical aim of these attacks was to reduce the enemy’s ability to effectively carry out military operations. Among commercial blockades, those intended to starve or weaken the enemy’s population by reducing the importation of food and other necessities have traditionally received the most attention (Rahman, 2007 p. 6).

In the past, it has been seen as a function of the navy to protect an entire trading system. In return, the desire to increase the naval strength has sometimes been exaggerated every so often even forcing countries to change their policies. With policy makers feeling that their countries need more protection, this has led to the escalation of the naval budgets.

For example, before the First World War, the British viewed that the Germany navy was not mostly aimed at protecting their own commerce but to destroy that of England. As a result, many policy makers in England felt that a complete command in the sea was the first requirement before the country could completely venture into commerce.

Other naval actions which have hurt international trade, though most of the times at low levels, in the past include: The use of gun boat diplomacy⁴, flag display and the frequent policing on frequent waters.

Most of the times these actions do not include anything more than showing the fleet but the show to intimidate or threaten serves the purpose.

For example Ahmed (2007) gives the example of how the US maintained an Asiatic squadron⁵ of ships in the Far East during the past two centuries as they sought to advance and improve their commercial interests. As a result, their trade with China improved while destroying the trade relationship between Japan and China due to the military influence exerted by the Americans.

Conclusion

Navies or Seapower in general serves many functions with the interference of international trade being one of them.

In the past, as we have seen, seapower has been used as an instrument in influencing trade and military operations: thus intertwining both commercial and naval interests where countries have used their sea power to influence the activities of others as well as enacting policies which seek to strengthen their marine power if they feel threatened.

Bibliography of notes

1. Measure of economic and naval power influence
2. The power projections include use of guerrede course (war of race) strategies, blockades, embargoes and other less explicit forms of economic warfare
3. Ahmed S. Rahman, 2007. Fighting the Forces of Gravity – Seapower and Maritime Trade between the 18th and 20^th Centuries
4. Gunboat diplomacy for refers to the pursuit of some foreign policy objective through the use or threat of limited naval force
5. A squadron is a military flight can simply be describes as a unit of military organization.

Reference List

Bartholomees, J. Boone. Eds. “U.S. Army War College Guide To National Security Issues” Volume I: Theory Of War And Strategy. 3^rd Edition. (2008). Web.

Penubarti, Mohan., and Ward, Michael. “Commerce and Democracy,” Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences Working Paper No. 6, University of Washington. (2000). Web.

Rahman, Ahmed. “Fighting the Forces of Gravity” – Seapower and Maritime Trade between the 18th and 20^th Centuries. (2007). Web.

Footnotes

¹ Measure of economic and naval power influence

² The power projections include use of guerrede course ( war of race) strategies, blockades , embargoes and other less explicit forms of economic warfare

³ Ahmed S. Rahman, 2007. Fighting the Forces of Gravity – Seapower and Maritime Trade between the 18th and 20^th Centuries

⁴ Gunboat diplomacy refers to the pursuit of some foreign policy objective through the use or threat of limited naval force

⁵ A squadron is a military flight can simply be describes as a unit of military organization.