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Showing posts with the label String of Pearl strategy

Is China's Maritime Silk Road A Military Strategy? ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Anthony Kleven)

PLAN Frigate ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Anthony Kleven Did Xi Jinping just acknowledge that the Maritime Silk Road has, in fact, a strong military dimension? That seems to be the case, following a joint declaration made with his Djibouti counterpart, Ismail Omar Guelleh (IOG), on the sidelines of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg. According to Xinhua, the usually guarded Xi welcomed “Djibouti’s participation in developing Beijing-proposed 21st-century Maritime Silk Road in proper ways.” However, in light of last week’s bombshell that China has chosen this sleepy East African nation to house its first military base, giving such a warm embrace to Djibouti’s “proper” participation in the Maritime Silk Road is, quite frankly, startling. On November 26, the Chinese government signed a 10-year agreement with IOG’s Djibouti to set up a navy base to serve as a logistics hub for the

Where Is the 'String of Pearls' in 2015? ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Benjamin David Baker)

PLAN Type-52D ( Source- Internet image) Source- The Diplomat Author- Benjamin David Baker Is the “String of Pearls” theory valid? This is a debate which has been ongoing since the term was coined in 2005, when the US consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton published “Energy Futures in Asia.” In this report, Booz Allen predicted that China would try to expand its naval presence throughout the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) by building maritime civilian infrastructure in friendly states in the region, a strategy dubbed the “String of Pearls.” Since then, there has been much speculation and debate surrounding the validity, extent and potential intentions behind the concept. Commentators here at The Diplomat have both supported the possibility and warned against the utility of the term. The tricky thing about the String of Pearls debate is that there is a problem with definition. Looking at much of the available literature, the “lowest common denominator” definition is that each “Pear

Burying China's 'String of Pearls' ( Source- The Diplomat, Author- Christopher D.Yung)

PLAN ship Hongzehu ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- United States DOD) Source- The Diplomat Author- Christopher D.Yung In a November 8 column, U.S. Naval War College Professor James R. Holmes (aka the Naval Diplomat) criticized a new National Defense University (NDU) report on Chinese overseas basing that I and a team of analysts published in October 2014. Holmes mischaracterizes the report’s findings as concluding “there’s little reason to expect China to seek bases in the Indian Ocean” and criticizes it for “linear thinking” and “straight-line analysis.” In fact, the report argues that China’s expanding global interests will generate increased demands for out-of-area naval operations and predicts that China is likely to establish at least one “dual-use” civilian/military base to provide logistics support for increased People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) operations. The report also concludes that the so-called “string of pearls” model of covert access to com