Roaring Forties: The Arena for Tomorrow's War

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to examine four issues that could determine the location of future conflicts in which Marine Corps forces would be involved. The United States bases its foreign policy and military preparedness upon blunting general war in Europe. Current Marine Corps attention is centered around the reinforcement of Norway on NATO's northern flank. Current indications of future wars lead one to conclude that low-level violence in other areas of the world is what the United states and the Marine Corps should be planning for. The United States and all the industrial nations of the Western alliance are reliant upon strategic materials to meet production requirements. These resources travel by sea. Thirteen locations in the world control the passage of most of the world's commerce. Given the incidence of terrorist activities and guerrilla warfare, chokepoints between 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south latitudes are in jeopardy of control or closure by hostile forces. The Rio Pact further extends U.S. security requirements to cover the entire Western Hemisphere. Benign neglect and recent instability in Latin America threaten the United States on its southern flank. The United States is erring in its insistence on Europe as the focus of diplomacy and military preparedness. As the 'first to fight,' the Marine Corps should take the lead and prepare for conflict at the lower end of the spectrum of violence and devote its attention to the 'Roaring Forties.'.