Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: Strategic Islands

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default Strategic Islands

    For historical and geopolitical reasons some, usually small, islands have great strategic value, especially as they can provide an airstrip, storage and shelter. Diego Garcia comes to mind, a UK dependency minus its people is a significant base for the USA. Other islands in the Indian Ocean are of value, Maisrah (Oman) for example, whilst Socotra (Yemen) oddly has almost none, largely as it has little potable water and the terrain is harsh.

    The UK has a number of such assets, an imperial legacy, although some have seen a 'small war' e.g. EOKA's campaign in Cyprus, or a significant international conflict, the Falkland Islands war in 1982.

    Non-western nations also have recognised their value, China (PRC) has long been suspected of having a strategy to acquire facilities - a 'String of Pearls':http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_...ls_%28China%29

    So I read this Lowy Institute blog article with interest, not for the possible use by the USA of the Cocos Islands, close to Sumatra (Australia), but the reference to use of the Andaman Islands (India):http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...-Andamans.aspx

    There are several threads on islands, great power rivalry and the US pivot to the Asia-Pacific.
    davidbfpo

  2. #2
    Council Member Dayuhan's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Latitude 17° 5' 11N, Longitude 120° 54' 24E, altitude 1499m. Right where I want to be.
    Posts
    3,137

    Default

    You could also include what might be called "symbolic islands": islands, typically disputed, that have no real strategic significance but have come to represent national will and assertiveness on the part of the various claimants.
    “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”

    H.L. Mencken

  3. #3
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default Cyprus: a confusing island hosts so many

    Cyprus is a strategic island in the Eastern Mediterranean, first of all it is a divided island, with the Republic of Cyprus (a Commonwealth and an EU member) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17217956

    With two British territories - really military & intelligence bases - since 1960, known as the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a polite term for being British territory, which cover one hundred square miles (the island has 3,572 sq miles or 3% of the land area) and sometimes a source of tension with Cyprus:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia

    The USA has been known to use the SBA facilities, in the past for aircraft overflying the Middle East, such as the U2.

    With one of the UN's longest serving missions, UNFICYP, since 1964, manning a buffer zone (3% of he land area) between the two republics and with main contributions from:Argentina, Slovakia and the UK (plus nine others):http://www.unficyp.org/nqcontent.cfm...raphic&lang=l1

    UNFICYP has been commanded since January 2011 by a Chinese PLA General:http://www.unficyp.org/nqcontent.cfm...raphic&lang=l1

    Greece has a small presence (a battallion) and two hundred advisers with the Greek-Cypriot National Guard; whilst Turkey has based forty-three thousand soldiers in the north (since 1974).

    The island has long been regarded as a "place of interest" to Middle Eastern nations, notably for intelligence and trade. More recently Russia has extensive commercial interests and yesterday following a ministerial statement on exiting its Syrian facility, The Guardian reported:
    Neighbouring Cyprus has, however, made its ports available to the Russian fleet. Cypriot media have reported that the government may allow Russia to use its base at Paphos to host military aircraft.
    Link:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...ersonnel-syria

    Anyone aware of a similar island with such a variety of "presences"? I exclude the UN in New York!
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-02-2013 at 09:15 PM. Reason: This was a stand alone post, now merged here.
    davidbfpo

  4. #4
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default Singapore

    An IISS Strategic Comment 'Singapore and the US: security partners, not allies':http://www.iiss.org/en/publications/...ot-allies-fe48

    Although Singapore continues to balance it's national interests, as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated:
    Singapore is friends with America, also with India, Japan and China and the other major powers. And we would like to maintain our good relations with all of them.
    Aside: I'd missed that in June 2013 Singapore exited from Afghanistan.
    davidbfpo

  5. #5
    Council Member Bob's World's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    2,706

    Default

    The first US Pivot to the Pacific was all about strategic islands.

    During the Spanish-American War the US secured it's hold on Hawaii; and then scooped up additional critical deep water ports/coaling stations in Guam and the Philippines and Samoa.

    When China looks a few hundred miles to the East we have a cow, but a little over a century ago we leaped several thousand miles to the West, and remain there to this day. For good reason. Like Great Britain we are a maritime nation and "strategic islands" remain an effective way to extend one's influence well beyond their borders.
    Robert C. Jones
    Intellectus Supra Scientia
    (Understanding is more important than Knowledge)

    "The modern COIN mindset is when one arrogantly goes to some foreign land and attempts to make those who live there a lesser version of one's self. The FID mindset is when one humbly goes to some foreign land and seeks first to understand, and then to help in some small way for those who live there to be the best version of their own self." Colonel Robert C. Jones, US Army Special Forces (Retired)

  6. #6
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    13

    Default

    Britain long had a string of pearls to tie together it's Empire, though not all necessarily defined by geography as islands.

    Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Suez, Aden, Ceylon, Penang, Singapore.

    The Americans have or had Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, the Philippines, Okinawa.

    Sicily used to be the key to dominate the Western Med.

  7. #7
    Council Member jcustis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SOCAL
    Posts
    2,152

    Default

    Don't forget the Azores. I stopped by there on a C-141 hop to Cairo West, then onwards to Mogadishu

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 06-01-2019, 08:49 PM
  2. Siachin Confict
    By Ray in forum South Asia
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 06-02-2012, 07:01 PM
  3. Call for Paper -Journal of Strategic Security
    By rborum in forum Miscellaneous Goings On
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-16-2009, 05:27 PM
  4. Strategic Compression
    By SWJED in forum RFIs & Members' Projects
    Replies: 33
    Last Post: 10-02-2006, 10:51 AM
  5. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-23-2006, 08:17 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •