South China Sea Headlines TPP’s ’23 Defense Summit
Bonnie Green, TPP Executive Director, introduces The Patuxent Partnership’s 2023 Defense Summit panel, US Maritime Strategy and the South China Seas, with panelists CAPT Paul Tortora, Dr. Steven Wills, and VADM Bruce H. Lindsey. (Photo Courtesy of The Patuxent Partnership)
The Patuxent Partnership‘s 2023 Defense Summit was the first time the all-day summit had been held since 2019, but it wasn’t the first time the South China Sea highlighted TPP’s efforts to alert industry, government, and academia to their combined importance to NAS Patuxent River missions.
The first panel of the ’23 Defense Summit concerned US maritime strategy and the South China Sea, discussed by experts with deep background careers in naval strategy, security, and intelligence.
One-third of the world’s maritime shipping passes through the South China Sea, carrying more than $3 trillion in trade each year, according to Wikipedia. The region’s importance to world trade has been reiterated by experts headlining TPP’s array of China Sea briefings, panels, and events throughout the 2000s. Further, huge oil and natural gas reserves are believed to lie beneath its seabed, and its lucrative fisheries is crucial for the food security of millions in Southeast Asia.
Global Conflict Tracker of the Center for Preventative Action reports that satellite imagery shows China reclaiming land in the South China Sea by enlarging the size of islands and creating new islands. This does not sit well with the many other territories that consider portions of the South China Sea to be theirs and by all nations contending the area must be kept open transit for world trade. So, while the US maintains important interests in ensuring freedom of navigation, it also has a growing role in preventing military escalation resulting from the territorial disputes of centuries concerning the South China Sea and conflict over its substantial resources.
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean approaching 1.5 million square miles. A marginal sea describes a division of an ocean partially enclosed by islands, archipelagos, or peninsulas. South China Sea is bound to its north by the shores of South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luzon, Mindoro and Palawan), and in the south by the Indonesian islands of Borneo, eastern Sumatra and the Bangka Belitung Islands. It seems nearly everyone with a toe in, has a proprietary claim.
The US Maritime Strategy and the South China Sea panel discussed some of the critical challenges the US faces in the area as well as the US Navy’s continuing presence and patrols through the region to guarantee world trade can pass unabated.
The 2023 summit’s South China Sea panelists brought deep background careers in naval strategy, security, and intelligence to the discussion. And the three also represent the mainstays of The Patuxent Partnership’s mission — blending backgrounds in government, industry, and academia.
Moderator Dr. Steven Wills, navalist from the Center for Maritime Strategy, Navy League of the United States, is an expert in US Navy strategy, policy, and surface warfare programs and platforms. His 20-year active-duty career included executive officer of a mine countermeasures ship and shore-based billets at the Defense Intelligence Agency and NATO commands. Since retiring in 2010, he writes widely on naval strategy and security.
Panelist retired US Navy VADM Bruce H. Lindsey, PhD, served as deputy commander of US Fleet Forces Command at the time of his retirement in 2020. In addition to being USFFC’s deputy commander, VADM Lindsey also served as director of the Combined Joint Operations from the Sea Center of Excellence (CJOS COE) since November 7, 2017.
Panelist retired US Navy CAPT Paul Tortora is director of the Center for Cyber Security Studies at the US Naval Academy and the first chair of the academy’s new Cyber Science Department. He recently retired from the Navy following a 26-year active-duty career as both a nuclear submarine officer and a naval intelligence officer.
About The Patuxent Partnership
The Patuxent Partnership is a nonprofit member organization that fosters collaboration between government, industry, and academia to advance education through STEM-based initiatives; to advance technology through speaker programs, forums, and networking; to advance science and technology transfer through the exchange of ideas, information, and data related to technologies; and to increase workforce development through an array of initiatives.
To learn more about The Patuxent Partnership and its programs, visit its Leader member page.
