Christopher Booth
The ongoing war in Ukraine demonstrates that defense is ascendant in modern warfare. This observation challenges the conventional wisdom that twenty-first century warfare would be sharp, short, decisive, and favor the offense. Instead, it appears increasingly clear that conflict will likely devolve into a long-running war of attrition across multiple fronts – including the maritime domain. In studying the last 200 years of conflict, retired US Marine Corps colonel and strategist T.X. Hammes concluded that most great power conflicts lasted years rather than months. Considering this analysis, he proposed the strategy of maritime trade warfare in the context of a conflict with China—interdicting Chinese imports to starve it into economic exhaustion.
To address its military deficiencies in a potential conflict with China, the United States should consider asymmetric approaches, particularly the revival of privateering—commercial actors deputized by a Letter of Marque (as authorized by the U.S. Constitution) to raid enemy commerce on behalf of the United States government.
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