A strong world economy enhances our national security by advancing prosperity and freedom in the rest of the world.
Maximize domain awareness to support effective decision-making.
A key national security requirement is the effective understanding of all activities, events, and trends within any relevant domain – air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace – that could threaten the safety, security, economy, or environment of the United States and its people. Awareness and threat knowledge are critical for securing the maritime domain and the key to preventing adverse events. K nowledge of an adversary’s capabilities, intentions, methods, objectives, goals, ideology, and organizational structure, plus factors that influence his behavior, are used to assess adversary strengths, vulnerabilities, and centers of gravity. Such knowledge is essential to supporting decision-making for planning, identifying requirements, prioritizing resource allocation, and implementing maritime security operations. Domain awareness enables the early identification of potential threats and enhances appropriate responses, including interdiction at an optimal distance with capable prevention forces.
Achieving awareness of the maritime domain is challenging. The vastness of the oceans, the great length of shorelines, and the size of port areas provide both concealment and numerous access points to the land. Many maritime threats are conveyed in ways that thwart early detection and interdiction. The lack of complete transparency into the registration and ownership of vessels and cargoes, as well as the fluid nature of the crewing and operational activities of most vessels, offer additional opportunities for concealment and challenges for those attempting to maintain maritime security. Domain awareness requires integrating all-source intelligence, law enforcement information, and open-source data from the public and private sectors. It is heavily dependent on information sharing and requires unprecedented cooperation among the various elements of the public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally.
To maximize domain awareness, the United States will leverage its global maritime intelligence capability and the diverse expertise of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. The efforts of the existing maritime collection and analysis means will contribute to an intelligence enterprise equipped to collect, fuse, integrate, and disseminate timely intelligence and information. This intelligence enterprise will support United States Government agencies and international partners in securing the maritime domain, as well as their other statutorily assigned missions. Additionally, the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and Justice will oversee the implementation of a shared situational awareness capability that integrates intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, navigation systems, and other operational information inputs, combined with access at multiple levels throughout the United States Government. Authorized elements in the public and private sectors will have access to this integrated shared situational awareness capability, as well as relevant information within their specific area of responsibility. The establishment of this intelligence enterprise underscores the need for an integrated and robust maritime command and control system to defeat all maritime threats.
“The increasing mobility and destructive potential of modern terrorism has required the United States to rethink and renovate fundamentally its systems for border and transportation security. Indeed, we must now begin to conceive of border security and transportation security as fully integrated requirements because our domestic transportation systems are inextricably intertwined with the global transport infrastructure. Virtually every community in America is connected to the global transportation network by the seaports, airports, highways, pipelines, railroads, and waterways that move people and goods into, within, and out of the Nation. We must therefore promote the efficient and reliable flow of people, goods, and services across borders, while preventing terrorists from using transportation conveyances or systems to deliver implements of destruction.”
Defeating this array of threats to maritime security – including the threat or use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)2 – requires a common understanding and a joint effort for action on a global scale. Because the economic well-being of people in the United States and across the globe depends heavily upon the trade and commerce that traverses the oceans, maritime security must be a top priority. Maritime security is required to ensure freedom of the seas; facilitate freedom of navigation and commerce; advance prosperity and freedom; and protect the resources of the ocean. Nations have a common interest in achieving two complementary objectives: to facilitate the vibrant maritime commerce that underpins economic security, and to protect against ocean related terrorist, hostile, criminal, and dangerous acts. Since all nations benefit from this collective security, all nations must share in the responsibility for maintaining maritime security by countering the threats in this domain.
A strong world economy enhances our national security by advancing prosperity and freedom in the rest of the world. Economic growth supported by free trade and free markets creates new jobs and higher incomes. It allows people to lift their lives out of poverty, spurs economic and legal reform, and the fight against corruption, and it reinforces the habits of liberty. We will promote economic growth and economic freedom beyond America’s shores.
Today’s translational threats have the potential to inflict great harm on many nations. Thus, the security of the maritime domain requires comprehensive and cohesive efforts among the United States and many cooperating nations to protect the common interest in global maritime security. This Strategy describes how the United States Government will promote an international maritime security effort that will effectively and efficiently enhance the security of the maritime domain while preserving the freedom of the domain for legitimate pursuits.8
This approach does not negate the United States ‘ inherent right to self-defence or its right to act to protect its essential national security interests.
Defending against enemies is the first and most fundamental commitment of the United States Government. Pre-eminent among America’s national security priorities is to take all necessary steps to prevent WMD from entering the country and to avert an attack on the homeland.
This course of action must be undertaken while respecting the constitutional principles upon which the United States was founded.
Three broad principles provide overarching guidance to this Strategy. First, preserving the freedom of the seas is a top national priority. The right of vessels to travel freely in international waters, engage in innocent and transit passage, and have access to ports is an essential element of national security. The free, continuing, unthreatened intercourse of nations is an essential global freedom and helps ensure the smooth operation of the world’s economy.
Second, t he United States Government must facilitate and defend commerce to ensure this uninterrupted flow of shipping. The United States is a major trading nation, and its economy, environment, and social fabric are inextricably linked with the oceans and their resources. The adoption of a just-in-time delivery approach to shipping by most industries, rather than stockpiling or maintaining operating reserves of energy, raw materials, and key components, means that a disruption or slowing of the flow of almost any item can have widespread implications for the overall market, as well as upon the national economy.
Third, the United States Government must facilitate the movement of desirable goods and people across our borders, while screening out dangerous people and material . There need not be an inherent conflict between the demand for security and the need for facilitating the travel and trade essential to continued economic growth. This Strategy redefines our fundamental task as one of good border management rather than one that pits security against economic well-being. Accomplishing that goal is more manageable to the extent that screening can occur before goods and people arrive at our physical borders.
In keeping with these guiding principles, the deep-seated values enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and applicable domestic and international law, the following objectives will guide the Nation’s maritime security activities :
• Prevent Terrorist Attacks and Criminal or Hostile Acts
• Protect Maritime-Related Population Centers and Critical Infrastructures
• Minimize Damage and Expedite Recovery
• Safeguard the Ocean and Its Resources
This Strategy does not alter existing authorities or responsibilities of the department and agency heads, including their authorities to carry out operational activities or to provide or receive information. It does not impair or otherwise affect the authority of the Secretary of Defence over the Department of Defence, including the chain of command for military forces from the President and Commander-in-Chief, to the Secretary of Defence, to the commander of military forces, or military command and control procedures.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
Discussion about this post