Sailing with the Enemy; the Integration of China into the Proliferation Security Initiative

摘要

The world's nations must take action to prevent the growing threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) proliferation. WMD material must be prevented from reaching terrorist and rogue states via the high seas. With 80 percent of the world's trade transported on the maritime domain, it will take the combined effort of all nations to monitor the large maritime domain and interdict WMD. The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is a great tool to prevent the spread of WMD on the high seas, but its current form is lacking structure and doctrine. This has not been a problem with long-time allies, but will present problems with the eventual integration of China into the PSI. This paper discusses the current problem of incorporating China into the PSI, and the need for the United States to develop structure and doctrine in the PSI to facilitate the integration of China into the pact. The author recommends providing the needed structure and doctrine by forming a Joint Task Force (JTF) that will incorporate the operational functions of command and control and operational intelligence into the PSI. The JTF will allow an organized integration of China into the PSI, concentrating on command structure, communications, information sharing, and training, while ensuring operational and intelligence security. This will give unity of effort to the PSI partnership between China and the United States while initiating and legitimizing a needed rapport with the Chinese Navy that will expand to their other armed forces.