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Your guide to what US elections in 2024 mean for Washington and the world
The world looks different from the North Pole. Most maps map the planet from east to west. But look at the world from top to bottom and suddenly you will see the relative position of America again. Russia dominates the region. Greenland suddenly seems important, just like Canada. China, the “almost arctic” nation, is too close to comfort. The US is small in comparison. Alaska, his largest state in the territory, is a fraction of the perspective.
This view of the world is on the center of the new goal of Trump's administration “to make boat construction again”, with the kind permission of the upcoming executive order (which can drop this week). This will determine the most ambitious industrial strategy in the boat construction sector, because the Americans have appeared 2,710 “free ships” in four years during World War II.
It will also be a topic in Monday's US Sales Representative Office on the proposed corrective measures to fight the Chinese ringing of global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding.
In the 19th century, the British and Russian Empires fought for superiority in Central Asia, in a fight with more ten and ten, which became known as a “great game”. The territorial lines drawn across Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and India defined the geopolitics and economies of the next century during this period.
Today, a new great game is played – not in Central Asia, nor in modern hot zones, such as Ukraine, Gaza or the South China Sea, but rather in the cold waters of the Arctic. The dominance in this region will be essential for the strategic control of the whole western hemisphere, which is the goal of Trump's administration.
Blackrock's Agreement on buy ports In the Panama channel from the billionaire Hong Kong Li Ka -ding, somehow goes to this goal. This comes at a time when military experts say that the risk is as high as it has been due to increased piracy, Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Black Sea, underwater cable burst into the Baltic SeaHouthi Rebel attacks in the Red Sea and more Chinese military activities in the Pacific.
But Arctic, where the Chinese and Russians performed maritime exercise last year, is one of the few places where new sea routes actually open (due to climate change). A key element of the new great game will be to build US naval capacity to use mineral resources and stripes, lay new optical fiber communication cables that can be better by police America and create a greater security presence in the region.
Icebreakers are at the top list for Donald Trump, who came up with the plan to build polar cutters With Finns and Canadians at the end of their first term of office (the agreement that was filled with Biden administration is proven by the naval and Arctic safety by the rare bipartisan point of the agreement). The US has not built one in more than a quarter of a century, but the source of the White House tells me that Trump would like to see by the end of his second term.
The US also wants to control more of its own commercial transports. America today has 185 Ocean commercial vessels. China has 5 500. Theoretically, Beijing could turn off the US economy by suffocating access to this boat fleet and blocking the most important supplier chains through the South China Sea. Since the US military is gaining most of its supplies, even during the war, it could also defuse any future American war effort.
The key pillar of Trump's strategy will be to combine the commercial and military parties of the boat construction. “The aim of this new office is to reform orders, increase demand and eliminate obstacles to the competitiveness of the ship that would give them confidence in investing in the long -term sector,” says Ian Bennitt, special assistant to the President and Director of the Naval and Industrial Council in the National Security Council.
That's a big problem. It is a very industrial strategy that puts Chinese on the top in this area and many other industries and also represents a radical departure from Reagan's approach from the department of these two areas in a major decline in public subsidy.
On the other hand Many people within Trump's administration – From the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, to the economic advisor of the White House Peter Navarro and Ustr Jamieson Greer – pushes ships like new chips, Paraphrase a former biden safety advisor Jake Sullivan, who appreciated Trump Plan.
The leaked design of the executive order shows that the administration plans to use different carrots and sticks, from port fees on Chinese vessels, to the maritime security fund (using tax loans, grants and loans for the construction and training of workforce) for sanctions to strengthen the industry. This inevitably requires cooperation with allies such as South Korea (Hanwha bought Philadelphia), Japan, Finland, Canada and others.
Can Trump stay here with a course? He had already told the Canadians that they would not allow them to use icebreakers until they became 51. The state of the Union, even if the sources tell me that the ice pact works with Canada and Finland, which continues, will not affect business questions.
The US naval capacity has atrophy to the extent that it will be essential for its reconstruction. This great game cannot be played alone.
