Letter to the Editor / REALPOLITIK and the SUBMARINE DEAL

By Roger C. Kostmayer

France is outraged; China is very unhappy; Britain, Australia and the US are celebrating a huge commercial and national security deal that will help prevent Chinese domination of the Pacific and South China Sea. And this agreement should enable most Pacific nations to sleep better.

Australia had been negotiating with the French and paid an initial fee on the $66 billion contract for a fleet of conventional subs.  Britain quietly put together an American/ Australian/ British alliance to build and deploy a NUCLEAR powered fleet (which has nothing to do with nuclear weapons).  There is no comparison between conventional and nuclear powered subs in terms of performance, speed, and endurance underwater.

The French Prime Minister is upset over losing a big deal, but also because he sees the world differently than the US and Britain.  He prefers three power centers:  France and the European Union; The US; and China.  And, economically, he wants to deal equally with the other two.  

The US, realistically, sees China as the aggressive adversary for hegemony in the 21st century – economically, politically (including human values) and militarily.  This causes us to see the world as democracies versus dictatorships, and emphasizes multilateralism with all democratic allies.  The economic, military and other collective powers of these allies would, hopefully, enable them to establish international legal and commercial rules that would apply to all, regardless of their military or economic power.  Everyone would have to play by the same rules.

Sometimes friends’ feelings get hurt, but that’s reality.

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