First the embassy, then the army: US and NATO creeping into the Pacific

The United States opened an embassy in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, the latest US move in a long-running competition with China for influence in the Asia Pacific region.

“The opening of the embassy builds upon our efforts to provide more diplomatic presence throughout the region and to engage further with our Pacific neighbors,” the US Department of State said in a statement.

My first question and thought was … Vanuatu?.  It is a little place and how many people from there actually travel to the United States?

Vanuatu has a grand population of 335,908 people.

They are rurally based and export mainly tropical products to their close neighbors.  French and British interests were jumbled and a Convention of 16 October 1887 established a joint naval commission for the sole purpose of protecting French and British citizens. Japan got in there during the 2nd WW. Australia stationed troops to deter the Japanese and in May 1942 US troops were stationed on the islands, where they built airstrips, roads, military bases, and an array of other supporting infrastructure on some islands.  Wikipedia is interesting although reliability may be questioned.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu

Now we have a US Embassy (not just a Consulate for basic work like visas and trade issues) in Vanauto.

The U.S. earlier opened embassies in two other island nations, Solomon Islands and Tonga, and plans to open one more in Kiribati. Washington has been working to boost its diplomatic presence in the Pacific to counter what it sees as a growing threat from China.

The Solomon Islands were in the news as there were violent protests.  It was never clear to me whether the protests were protesting the Australians (who acted as US proxy) or what we saw in the media, a larger China influence.  From the side of China came assistance and help and it is quiet now with the Chinese doing their business and the Solomons keeping a careful balance.

The Solomon Islands has a grand total of 734,887 people.  But they now have a US embassy.

Tonga on all of its many islands, has a grand population of 100,209 people.  But they now have a US embassy.

Kiribati has a population of 121,388.  But they now have a planned US embassy.

There is a book that I found very interesting.  It is by Professor Daniel Immerwahr and he describes what makes him quantify the United States as an empire. His book is ‘How To Hide An Empire,’ where he documents the story of our “Greater United States.”  This is exactly what we see here – How to Hide an Empire.  Abby Martin interviewed Immerwahr here but interviews and lectures from him on his book are widely available.

There are now to my count 3 new and 1 planned US embassies. Why?

It is an open threat to China. The Island Chain strategy is a strategic maritime containment chain first conceived by American foreign policy statesman John Foster Dulles in 1951, during the Korean War. The strategy here from the US was to surround the Soviet Union and China with naval bases in the West Pacific to project power and restrict sea access. To this day it still is a major focus of force projection for the United States but it has changed focus to China.

First island chain

The first island chain refers to the first chain of major Pacific archipelagos out from the East Asian continental mainland coast. It is principally composed of the Kuril Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan (Formosa), the northern Philippines, and Borneo, hence extending from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the northeast to the Malay Peninsula in the southwest. The first island chain forms one of three island chain doctrines within the island chain strategy in the U.S. foreign policy.

Let us pause a moment to consider those names. The Kuril Islands, Taiwan, and the Philippines are the ones that you may have seen featured lately in the media. The Kuril Islands is by no means an innocent set of islands. To today, Russia and Japan are at odds about these islands. Russia just recently kicked the Japanese out, whereas before there was a relatively calm although not complete understanding as to which Island belongs to who? Recently it flamed up and one can guess who the culprit is, as Japan is a US proxy in this case. China has a continual disagreement with the government of the Philippines about fishing rights and UNCLOS, the law of the sea which is also based on UN international law.  Recently the President of the Philippines and the President of China installed what is considered a red telephone to quickly calm down the troubled waters should it flare up.  This is a huge consideration of importance from the Chinese side. About Taiwan, most readers are familiar with the issues around Taiwan, to the extent that China has, for the second time, stopped discussions with the US on weapons proliferation and nukes. The US only wants to talk because they do not really know what China has in terms of offensive fighting or deterrence.

Much of the first island chain is roughly situated in waters claimed by China. These include the South China Sea, within the nine-dash line, as well as the East China Sea west of the Okinawa Trough.

Second island chain

The Second Island Chain starts or ends at Japan’s Bonin Islands and Volcano Islands, in addition to the Mariana Islands (most notably Guam, an unincorporated American overseas territory with a heavily fortified military base), western Caroline Islands (Yap and Palau), and extends to Western New Guinea. The chain serves as the eastern maritime boundary of the Philippine Sea.  It is located in the middle part of the West Pacific, it acts as a second strategic defense line for the United States.

Third island chain

This begins at the Aleutian Islands and runs south across the center of the Pacific Ocean towards Oceania, through the Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, and Fiji, to reach New Zealand.

Australia seems to be the landmass that ties the second and third island chains together, like an interlocking piece of the puzzle.

If that is not enough, besides four new Embassies, we have a proposed fourth and fifth island chain.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a group under the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argues that a fourth and fifth island chain should be added to an overall understanding of Chinese maritime strategy in the “Indo-Pacific”.

As you can see from the Island chains, Indo-Pacific is a code word for the area that the US claims.  How to Build an Empire is a good book title.   Whereas the first three island chains are located in the Pacific Ocean, these two newly proposed ones are in the Indian Ocean, which would reflect the growing Chinese interest in the region.

The proposed fourth chain would include places like Lakshadweep, the Maldives, and Diego Garcia to disrupt the String of Pearls waypoints towards the Persian Gulf such as the Gwadar Port and Hambantota; while the proposed fifth chain would originate from Camp Lemonnier in the Gulf of Aden, around the Horn of Africa and along the entire East African coastline through the Mozambique Channel (between Mozambique and Madagascar, including the Comoro Islands) towards South Africa, to encircle the Chinese naval base at Doraleh, Djibouti, and sabotage China’s trade with Africa.

All of that is way more than half the world’s oceans.

Given the existing and proposed island chain strategy and the four new embassies, we can ask:  What follows the establishment of a US embassy?  Of course, easy to answer – it is those who ‘protect’ the embassy and you can be sure that if this embassy strategy succeeds, there will be many of those who ‘protect’ the embassies.  An army will follow, just as we see in the Philippines which has just given four bases to the US to place their soldiers, the attempts at placing US/NATO soldiers all over these islands will continue.  This long-term strategy can be seen as the US (and NATO) trying to claw back into history and fight the 2ndWW all over again.