THE 21ST CENTURY COAST GUARD (continued)
Maritime Law Enforcer
Threats to America’s maritime regions will be increasingly obscure, yet intrusive. More than ever, the United States will require the Coast Guard’s front-line defense against a host of illicit activities. Well-financed criminal organizations will exploit porous international borders to smuggle everything from drugs to weapons of mass destruction. Migrants will sail for the United States to flee persistent overpopulation, poverty, and instability in their native lands. Exhausted overseas fishing grounds will cause foreign fleets to venture further from local waters to cast their nets adjacent to – and if the risk of detection and enforcement is low, within – the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Some shipping companies, desperately seeking a competitive edge, will attempt to cut costs by sidestepping regulations designed to prevent or mitigate accidents. If unchecked, sea-based threats by those contemptuous of laws and international regulations will inflict significant harm on the Nation.
Upholding the law at sea, always complicated by the sheer span of America’s maritime borders and marine activities, will be more difficult due to the number and complexity of regulations and international agreements. As the Nation’s maritime law enforcement agency, the Coast Guard will engage new and old partners to work as an integrated team to safeguard America. The Coast Guard will transcend geographical and organizational jurisdictions to promote far-reaching cooperation among the agencies of the U.S. government; among regional, state, and local officials; within the private sector; and increasingly, with other nations. Joint enforcement and information-sharing will not stop at the water’s edge.
The Coast Guard has practiced a form of community policing for more than 200 years, and the Service has long understood the importance of deterring crime on the sea by maintaining an active presence. Patrols and inspections will continue, aided by a variety of specialized tracking and monitoring technologies. Operational intelligence will play a crucial role in tactical employment of limited assets. The Coast Guard will partner with industry to develop reasonable self-regulatory regimes. Private and public programs to improve information-sharing will be essential to deter and halt criminal activities.
When criminal maritime conduct is detected, the most cost-effective response will be rapid surging of enforcement assets to interdict at sea. Illegal immigrants will be intercepted on the high seas. Illegal fishing will be stopped before vulnerable fishing grounds are irreparably harmed. Drugs and weapons will be seized before finding their way to American streets. Unsafe ships and cargoes will be turned back before placing beaches and delicate coastal wetlands at risk. A Coast Guard multimission system of aircraft, boats, cutters, and C 4 ISR will provide the mobility and readiness to intercept fast, stealthy interlopers.
A broad spectrum of threats will constantly challenge America’s maritime interests. The Coast Guard will remain America’s Maritime Law Enforcer.
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Created:
August 1998