Global Energy Trade and the Joint Expeditionary Force: Supporting Friends and Influencing Others on the New Silk Road

摘要

Securing the Silk Road was imperative and the responsibility fell to many. Power and wealth garnered on this vast transit network was directly proportional to the ability to control at least part of it. The Huns, the Turks, the Persians, and the Mongols all contributed and reaped accordingly. In the late nineteenth century, A.T. Mahan identified the role sea power played in making Great Britain a dominant power. Despite collective maritime guarantees, globalization continues to alter the trade landscape. Seaborne trade is still very important, but certain aspects of global trade, particularly energy, have significant components passing through land pipelines in areas far from the shore. Many of these pipelines pass through regions with ongoing and simmering conflicts. Ensuring the free flow of oil and natural gas through these pipelines differs little from the requirement to ensure the free flow of commerce as Mahan suggested. Energy lanes require a security commitment akin to sea lanes, but the navy, alone, is no longer adequate. In fact, the network of global energy lanes comprise a new Silk Road and necessitate a rapidly deployable, joint, expeditionary force-in-being to ensure American security guarantees have value.