The US Marine Policy Toward the III World

Vladimir M. Kaczynski
Associate Professor, School of Marine Affairs; Adjunct Associate Professor, Jackson School of International Studies
University of Washington

Introductory Remarks

The marine policy of the United States toward developing countries must be seen as an integral part of the overall cultural, political and economic relations with the III World and the West's responsibility to address main root causes of the increasing gap between rich and poor countries. The III World socio-economic problems are the result of high rate of human population growth; economic policies that fail to solve social problems and conserve the environment and its resources, insufficient scientific knowledge, and weakness in institutional and legal systems.

Narrowing the gap and improving the lives of people in the III World may now be perceived as being in the best interest of the United States.

The consequences for the United States, however, of good or bad economic performance among poor countries go beyond direct economic returns. As a general outcome, economic failure abroad raises the risk of state failure as well. When foreign state malfunctions, in the sense that they fail to provide basic public goods for their populations, their societies are likely to experience steeply escalating problems that spill over to the rest of the world, including the United States. Failed states are seedbeds of violence, terrorism, international criminality, mass migration and refugee movements, drug trafficking, and disease.

Poor economic performance abroad has the potential to translate into state failure that, in turn, jeopardizes significant U.S. interests. If the United States wants to spend less time responding to failed states, it will have to spend more time helping them achieve economic success to avert state failure. The United States has certain, although limited, economic policy instruments at its disposal to help prevent state failure abroad. Foreign assistance and better designed initiatives to increase developing countries' capabilities to better use their coastal and ocean resources can play, in certain contexts, an important role in the overall US effort to change these trends. Unfortunately, the United States has not used it well for decades.

1. Strategic Significance of Inequities

At the time when the United States and many other industrialized countries enjoyed significant economic growth during last two decades, many III World counties including these located in Sub-Saharan Africa suffered an outright decline in welfare. Is there a "strategic significance" to global inequities in income levels and economic growth, and, if so, which policy might the United States pursue to address those strategic concerns? The similar question may posed in regard to our ocean policy toward developing countries having in mind continuing deterioration of their marine and coastal environments and declining possibilities to produce food of aquatic origin for their growing populations. In many poor countries, in spite of great potential of their coastal resources, technological, economic and managerial capabilities to use them do not exist or in order to gain badly needed hard currency they export their seafood thus feeding rich industrialized markets. As a result deficits of food and malnutrition is deepening in the III World. Coastal lands in these countries are increasingly cleared of mangroves, invaded by urban sprawl and suffer of increased water and land pollution. Expanding aquaculture in many Latin American and Asian countries is serving industrial countries' markets that are indifferent what is the origin and social cost of imported seafood even if its production is affecting natural ecosystems in these countries.

The United States interests in successful economic growth abroad are multifaceted. Some of these interest are economic: the economic success or failure of developing countries determines the gains from trade and investment that the United States reaps in its economic relations with those countries.

2. Types of Economic Failure in Developing Countries

2.1. Poverty: Poor countries are paradoxically too poor to achieve sustained economic growth. To attract foreign investment and technology so needed to assure growth there are minimum standards of health, education, and infrastructures, including ports, shipyards, processing and storage facilities, roads and utilities. In many impoverished countries (Sub-Saharan Africa, Indochina region, Bangladesh, Haiti, and other III World countries) these conditions cannot be met.
2.2. State Bankruptcy: This situation occurs when the state cannot service its current foreign debts. Bankrupt states cannot provide basic public services (health, education, courts, police, surveillance, and enforcement of their sustainable exploitation rates), maintain troop loyalties, use state revenues to buy off political opposition figures, or make budget transfers to keep allied parties or region within a governing coalition.
2.3. Liquidity Crisis: It is a sudden reversal of capital flows - usually short-term private-sector loans - that leads to an increase contraction of the economy despite long-term solvency and generally adequate economic conditions. These crises affected Mexico (1995), Indonesia, Korea and Thailand in 1997 and in certain cases (Indonesia) provoked dramatic regime change and internal violence.
2.4. Transition Crisis: Systemic transitions in many developing countries destabilize societies in many ways. Transition from communism in Easter Europe and Russia, recovery from war (especially from defeat), transition from colonial rule to state sovereignty, from authoritarian rule to democracy, and succession struggles after the collapse of a long-standing regime (fall of Suharto after 32 years in power) are good examples. The CIA study found that the most dangerous political condition leading to future state failure was a state in transition. "Partial" democracies are more likely to fail than authoritarian or fully democratic regimes.

3. Impacts Of State Failure On Us Strategic Interests

3.1. National Security: Nearly in all cases of US military interventions abroad since 1960 have taken place in a developing countries that previously experienced a case of state failure. In many cases, the linkages from economic collapse to state failure to U.S. military engagements could not be clearer in such cases as Vietnam, Haiti, Panama, Lebanon, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Colombia and presently Afghanistan. Security considerations include piracy, terrorist attacks and arms proliferation.
3.2. Economic Losses: The United States has huge economic stakes in developing world that are jeopardized by the state failure. The market value of US foreign direct investment is (Dept. of Commerce data) is US$ 2.1 trillion of which 500 billion in developing countries. About 41% of US exports go to the III World countries (1999) and its quickly growing. Business operations are heavily affected by host-country instability, poverty, and even disease.
3.3. International Crime and Drug Smuggling: The state failure is both the cause and consequence of international criminality, including money laundering and international drug trafficking. Failed states are easy prey for criminal groups, pirates and mafias (Indonesia, Columbia, Russia, Afghanistan).
3.4. Environmental Degradation: Tropical deforestation, overfishing, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and long-term climate change - is caused in part by population pressures in poor agrarian regions that lead to clear cutting of forests, pollution and illegal occupation of lands. Environmental regulations in failed states are generally not enforceable or are easily corrupted (Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, China, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, Columbia).
3.5. Infectious Diseases: Many poorest countries, especially societies with state failure, are subject to horrific conditions of disease. The disease is both a cause and consequence of economic and political failures. Collapsed states lack the financial and institutional means to deliver vital public health services. Disease burden and spread of multi-drug resistant strains across international borders are cause of destabilization in whole regions.

4. Marine Policy Challenges For The United States

There is an absence of policy framework for translating the US strategic interests in foreign economic performance into foreign policy actions and addressing preventable or remediable cases of foreign economic failure. These actions must include the United States' marine policy initiatives.

The US foreign assistance has mostly targeted countries not in a poverty trap and poorly timed (usually too late). To address poverty trap a large-scale and sustained income transfers from the US and other rich countries targeted on the crises in health, education and basic infrastructure will be highly advisable.

Industrialized countries did nothing significant to help the poorest of the poor in Africa break out of the poverty trap. However, there is an urgent need to address the poverty, state bankruptcy and other maladies affecting societies and economies of the III World.

State bankruptcy can be dealt with outright cancellation of external debt. In case of illiquidity the postponement or timeout on debt servicing might be appropriate. Continuing hemorrhaging of debt service payments during liquidity crisis can cause an extremely sharp collapse of economic output (East Asia in 1998 - as an example).

The crisis of transition can be solved by providing help in crucial moments that are expected to prevent the collapse or attract political forces to the reform program. Foreign assistance should build signals of the long-term durability of the new government.

The United States has rarely wielded foreign assistance as an effective instrument of the U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. spends now 0.1% of GNP in foreign assistance and only 0.02 % in assistance for poorest countries. The consequences of this stringency are undermining the long-term vital interests of the United States. There is an urgent need to rebuild our national capacity to support economic development abroad in particularly helping sub-Saharan Africa to escape for poverty trap, that lead to a downward spiral of disease, falling living standards, and increased conflict during past 20 years.

The new approach in the US marine policy toward the developing countries should consider, between others, the following challenges:

Food Security
Despite of seriousness of food security threats in poor countries, little was done in increasing their capabilities to improve the use of their coastal living resources for the benefit of the local populations. The US marine policy should include this issue as an important agenda item for the nearest future.
Marine and Coastal Environmental Deterioration
Through trade and transfer of capital the United States contributes to the accelerated deterioration of the coastal and ocean resources in the capital recipient and exporting developing countries (timber from Amazonian forests, crabs from the Russian Far East waters, shrimp from Ecuadorian or Thai aquaculture ponds). The US imports of environmental products are not restricted (with few exceptions like tuna-dolphin interactions) by the damage this trade is generating in exporting countries. We take from other ecosystems by the importation of products and raw materials from developing countries. While we have stopped many damaging practices that affect our own environment at home, we are benefiting from the continuation of those same practices carried out by American and foreign companies overseas. In short we are either buying or degrading other people's environments and then consuming them for ourselves. Our new marine policy should address and prevent these negative tendencies.
Marine Resources as an Engine of Growth
Marine and fresh water resources in developing countries have a great potential as an engine of economic growth, employment and as a source of food for the local populations. In spite of declining agricultural and industrial growth and increasing number of poor in Africa, there are grounds for at least some cautious optimism. One main reason is that among the leadership and governments of the African continent and outside agencies that support them (The World Bank, UNDP, International Monetary Fund, African Development Bank and others), there is growing awareness of this potential. US should support projects leading to increased coastal countries' capabilities to take advantage of their marine and coastal resources.
Population Growth and Resource Depletion
Rapid growth of population and migration to the coastal areas throughout all the Sub-Saharan region are associated with increased demand for seafood, space and other coastal resources. This contributes to depletion of the ocean and coastal living resources caused by intensifying fishing (particularly by the foreign fleets), disappearance of the mangrove forests, urban pollution, poor sanitation, and declining quality of water. If not addressed by governments and civic society at large, such environmental deterioration takes place wherever human beings congregate in large numbers, suggesting that problems will become even more of a challenge in the future as urbanization continues and coastal urban areas grow in population and size. Important marine policy objective is to design precautionary measures that coastal states of Africa must take to prevent these negative trends.
Transformation of the International Fishery Cooperation Policy Toward the III World
The United States marine policy should support substantial transformation of the West's policy toward poor developing coastal states such as those situated in Sub-Saharan Africa. It should promote joint sub-regional initiatives in this regard to the international cooperation in fisheries and improvement of the investment climate that is needed for foreign companies to integrate their typically offshore activity with the coastal states' economies. These policy reforms should be combined with the change of orientation from pure business approach in fisheries relations with the coastal developing countries to more active participation in reform programs in the coastal states. There is a need for increased responsibility of foreign operators in protection and sustainability of exploited marine living resources in the coastal waters of the developing countries.

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