September 04, 2014
The Challenge of Responding to Maritime Coercion
In this first working paper produced as part of CNAS’ Maritime Strategy Project, Dr. Patrick Cronin provides a framework for further thinking about both the need to impose costs on bad behavior and gray zone assertiveness in maritime Asia, and the set of strategies best able to accomplish behavioral change while preserving the overall peaceful character of the region.
After making the case for why cost imposition, or balancing, is a critical element of an overall portfolio along with engagement and binding, Dr. Cronin suggests a range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic measures that could raise the costs of assertive actions in Indo-Pacific waters, as well as some challenges and risks associated with these strategies. Overall, policymakers must be broad-minded in their thinking about how to preserve and adapt an inclusive, rules-based system of open access to the global commons. Future papers in this series will address other types and facets of cost-imposing strategies for the Indo-Pacific. Check back for frequent updates here.
Author
-
Patrick M. Cronin
Former Senior Advisor and Senior Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program
Patrick M. Cronin is a former Senior Advisor and Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Previously, he was the ...
More from CNAS
-
The Dhaka Test: Washington and New Delhi’s Alternative to China in a New Bangladesh
Commentary
The challenge is not that each vertex lacks interest in stabilising Bangladesh, but rather that each is pursuing those interests in ways that undermine the others, at the prec...
By Keerthi Martyn
-
Podcast
Indo-Pacific Security / Middle East Security
Why Trump’s Efforts to Force Iran to Concede to U.S. Demands Aren’t Working"So far, there has been no combination of carrots and sticks that has brought Iran to the terms that the Americans want. And if the idea is that, at some point soon, Iran will...
By Richard Fontaine
-
Is the Quad Fracturing as U.S. Priorities Shift?
Podcast
The Quad was meant to anchor stability in the Indo-Pacific—a way for the United States, India, Japan, and Australia to stay aligned in a rapidly changing region. But shifting ...
By Derek Grossman
-
How the War with Iran Is Shaping U.S.-Chinese Competition
Commentary
The war also gives Beijing an opportunity to court developing countries....
By Jacob Stokes
