The United States’ geopolitical & strategic interest in the NMI

[B][I]First of a two-part series[/I][/B]

Many people in the United States and elsewhere could pin the tail on a donkey blindfolded with greater ease than locate the Northern Marianas on a map, which doesn’t bode well for their knowledge of geography.

It is because of geography that the Mariana Islands have always figured prominently and importantly in the affairs of western hemispheric nations in a measure far beyond their size and resources would appear to warrant.

As for the Northern Marianas, in spite of their proximity to Asia, in all their 487 years of recorded history since their location was charted by Western explorers, the only time they have been under the control of an Asian nation (Japan) was the 30-year period between the world wars, (1914 to 1944). For 457 years, or until 1978 when the NMI became self-governing, they were controlled by Western nations, first Spain, then Germany and later by the United States under an agreement with the United Nations. Indeed, the United States still exercises control over defense and the many federal laws that apply within the Commonwealth.

I dare say—at least in my judgment—the U.S. government has valued the island’s geographic location and used the NMI to further the achievement of its national political and military objectives in the western Pacific. While several activities listed below may be considered controversial by some, most have contributed to the positive growth and stability of the NMI much more than is readily apparent to the casual observer.

These have included, but are not limited to:

-the WWII Saipan invasion of 1944 in the war with Japan;

-the Cold War use of Saipan by the CIA – NTTU, (late ’50s–early ’60s);

-the current reserved use of military retention areas particularly on Saipan and Tinian (’80s to present);

-the current use of the Saipan harbor for prepositioned ships;

-the “over the horizon radar”, (early ‘90s, since removed from its Marpi location);

-the current use of a northern island for naval bombing practice;

-depending on the claims asserted by the United States, the Commonwealth’s jurisdiction of the territorial sea and the 200 mile exclusive economic zone are subordinate to the U.S. which could conceivably limit the opportunities for exploiting marine resources to the advantage of the NMI.

-an early development constraint imposed by U.S. policy on the islands while under the United Nations agreement in the form of the detrimental and stringent use of the “favored nation clause.” This policy effectively prohibited foreign investment and restricted economic growth for a period of time (’60s and early ’70s). (It was through the dedication and vision of David M. Sablan who worked to have this restriction on development eventually removed in 1973).

With the NMI as a U.S. affiliated political entity and situated on the doorstep of Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, the islands’ geographic location has been recognized to be of military strategic value in the western Pacific and as such is a geographic asset supporting the security of the United States and the military bases in Guam.

From the historical perspective of this observer the above are some actions that have affected the islands in one form or another. Other positive contributions include:

-search and rescue and surveillance missions;

-the valuable port visits of U.S. naval vessels for R&R.

Of further strategic importance is the location of the Northern Marianas situated astride the sea routes serving the Honolulu – Manila and Panama – Singapore sea lanes.

Sea routes are valuable national assets and the ability to control or influence these traffic lanes is a matter of importance to a blue water navy. The ocean, and today the air, are avenues of commerce—lifelines to carry the nation’s industrial blood, whether it be raw materials or its processed products to world markets.

Geopolitics in the western Pacific will continue to be influenced by the United States with China becoming an increasingly major player along with Japan, the latter a country that must import all its raw material and export its finished manufactured goods to markets throughout the world. The highways for this commerce are the sea lanes of all the world’s oceans. For this purpose China and Japan need secure ocean trade routes—security that the U. S. Navy has provided since the end of the World War II.

After the United States closed it bases in the Philippines, the Mariana Islands of Guam, Tinian and Saipan experienced increased importance to American strategic requirements. However, it is because of their geographic location in proximity to the Asian continent as well as the Great Circle Sailing Routes (shortest distance) between the United States and the Philippines, the Straits of Malacca at Singapore and the Lombok Straits in Indonesia that the United States will continue to exhibit interest in the area far into the 21st century. The Malacca and Lombok Straits are the passages through which supertankers and their vital cargo of oil from the Middle East and the Persian Gulf must travel en route to the United States west coast and the Pacific ports of its Japanese ally and trading partner.

In former times the Marianas served as coaling stations, relay stations for transoceanic cables, locations for radio transmitters, etc. Today they are sites for radar, earth satellite communication systems and fueling stops for the jet “clippers” of the skies, which more often than not land on air strips that were first constructed to service the American military.

Extreme geographic, cultural, historical, economic and political contrasts face each other across the vast Pacific Ocean. The oldest civilization on Earth faces the youngest. The most overpopulated continent lies opposite the most sparsely populated.

The Pacific is the ocean where East meets West—ancient civilizations with cultural and ancestral stability and with reverence for the past are juxtaposed with the restlessness of the West and its obsession with the future. So it was in the past and so it remains today. As the strategy of the Pacific is examined it becomes abundantly clear why the Marianas are so important to the United States. As the crow flies Saipan is roughly as distant from Washington, D.C. (6,775 nautical miles) as it is from Moscow (6,545 n. mi.).

Curiously, for a long period of time the islands of the Trust Territory of which the NMI was a part were not administered by the U. S. Department of State which carries out America’s foreign policy, since to do so would have been tantamount to admitting they were “foreign.” Instead, the Northern Marianas were, for a period, administered first by the United States Navy and later by the Department of the Interior.

The islands are geographically situated so as to be the farthest United States possessions in the Pacific west of Hawaii. Situated in a universe of water, the Marianas archipelago are the farthest stars out in America’s Pacific galaxy. With the possible exception of parts of the Philippine islands, the four southern islands in the Marianas archipelago are the only Western oriented societies in the Eastern Hemisphere.

During the height of the Cold War period it was the presence of the U.S. Navy in the Marianas that provided the assurance of stability that permitted the region to develop to the extent that has occurred.

Currently the United States military has leased a portion of Tinian (originally 17,799 acres of which 12,000 acres have been leased back to the CNMI). Several U.S. military supply vessels are already on station in Commonwealth waters.

[B][I]To be continued.[/I][/B] [I]Editor’s note: Prior to service with the U.S. Department of State the author studied the economics of national security from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (now the National Defense University). He is a recipient of the Department of Defense “Cold War Certificate” for services rendered to the U.S. government. During his tenure in the Pacific area he has served as senior economist for the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and later for the Northern Marianas, Palau and Truk.

William H. Stewart is an economist and military historical cartographer
[/I]