Sea Control - Sea Control 501 - Multilateral Approaches to Maritime Security in Oceania with Zach Ota

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

Links:1. 21st Century as the Pacific Century – Culture and Security of Oceania States in Great Power Competition, edited by Joanna Siekiera, University of Warsaw Press, 2023. 2. Sea Control 255 - Littoral Access Companies with Zach Ota, CIMSEC, June 3, 2021. 3. Sea Control 304 -France in the Pacific, CIMSEC, December 23, 2021.4. Sea Control 333 - CRIMARIO: France, the EU and the Indo-Pacific, CIMSEC, April 3, 2022. 5. Island Soldier

Hey folks, it's Jared. Zach Oteh returns today and he's discussing a host of maritime security issues in Oceania. This episode was edited and produced by Addison Pellerano. Here at SimSec, we aim to further international maritime security through an exchange of ideas and the rigor of critical thought and writing. If you haven't already, please check out SimSec.org for new articles on the most important maritime topics. If you'd like to contribute to the discussion, check out the Write for SimSec tab to learn how you can submit articles for publication. And now, Kimbersman. You're listening to Sea Control, hosted by the Center for International Maritime Hello shipmates and welcome back aboard Sea Control. My guest today is Lieutenant Colonel

Zach Ota. We're going to discuss his chapter contribution to the compilation 21st Century as the Pacific Century, Culture and Security of Oceania States in Great Power Competition. This chapter was entitled Navigating New Environments, Multilateral Approaches to Maritime Security in Oceania. Zach, welcome back. Could you refresh the listeners on your background, please? And also, any feedback on if I pronounce Oceania correctly? Yes. I realized it as I was going through the script.

It's like, I haven't. I'm not positive I heard this word pronounced, but go ahead. You've successfully passed your first gate in the Oceania security community, so congratulations. Yes, pronounce it correctly. You have my name. For the listeners, I'm Zach Ota, born and raised here in Hawaii. I went to school here. I'm now an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Aside from a little bit of time in Iraq and Afghanistan, I've been fortunate enough to spend most of my career here in the Pacific. Most recently, I was on the Oceania desk here at U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific, dealing with a lot of these maritime security issues and a lot of these regional challenges. So very happy to be here. Happy to contribute to a team of very talented authors who contributed to the 21st century as the Pacific century. and look forward to talking to you today. Well, thank you so much for agreeing to come back.

We will throw the link to your other episode into the show notes as well. I can't remember what number it was here, and I can't look it up with what I have in front of me. But you did come on and talk with Walker Mills about Coast Watchers prior to this with us. It's been a few years now. But as a reminder to the listeners, all opinions expressed today are our own, not reflective of any institution with which we might be otherwise associated. We are recording this to timestamp it on January 6th. So if anything changes in the region between now and then, the reason we're not talking about it is it hasn't happened yet. So, Zach, how has the geopolitical situation in Oceania changed in the course of the last five years?

Yeah, great question. In the last five years, the Pacific Island countries, or the PICs as we also refer them to, have undergone some of the most dramatic and drastic changes really since gaining their independence. And I think it's first off worth noting that a lot of these countries have only been independent for less than 50 years or just right about 50 years. So some dramatic shifts in the geopolitical landscape within their lifetime. You know, first off, I don't think we can avoid talking about the impacts of the pandemic. You know, not only was it a global crisis for humanity, but they hit the pigs especially hard because they have some of the lowest ratios of health care providers per population. And even those aren't evenly distributed across the many multiple islands they have within their countries.

So, first off, that was a challenge, obviously, as we all recognize. But the borders to a lot of these countries were closed for so long that it prohibited really, you know, deep engagement with the international community for a prolonged time. And only in the last year and a year and some change have these countries exited, you know, that self-imposed restriction. But even before the pandemic, you know, some very significant geopolitical changes were underfoot. If we harken back to 2019, you know, in September of 2019, the Solomon Islands kind of made this unexpected announcement that they were switching diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to the PRC. And then in quick succession, only a couple of weeks later, Kibos followed suit. So these kind of political tensions have been in the region and existing even before pandemic. And in some ways, the pandemic exacerbated them because without that international engagement, without that discourse and, you know, that robust and healthy exchange of ideas, people and commerce, you know, that tension heightened and that unknown.

And it was only in 2022, you know, when Solomon Islands again had this kind of revelation to the world that they were in discussions for a security agreement with the PRC that the world really started focusing back into the region and started to frame what was going on in Oceania as, you know, part of great power competition. So what are the greatest challenges facing the region now? Yeah, so, you know, like we talked about, not only are there geopolitical and diplomatic competition underfoot, but during the pandemic, we have to realize that a lot of other man-made problems accelerated in the Pacific. First, and I think the foremost to our listeners is, you know, the increase in this very pernicious, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing in the region. IUUF, as we call it for shorthand, that is robbing many Pacific Islanders of their livelihoods and depleting one of their most basic natural resources. Right. The right to sustain themselves and the food on which they survive. You know, and I think it's it's almost difficult to overstate the challenge to enforce regulated fishing. Right. We don't think often in terms of country size based on their economic exclusive zones.

But it's worth remembering that eight of the world's 20 largest EEZs are here in Oceania. You know, France leads the list, but even France is really made up of a lot of their overseas territories, EEZ. And a lot of those overseas territories are here in the Pacific, right, between New Caledonia, French Polynesia. That comprises a large part of their EEZ. Obviously, U.S. is second. Australia is third. And then, you know, some other surprises after that. New Zealand is ninth, right? Kiribati is 12th, like you mentioned earlier, with a EEZ of 3.4 million square kilometers. You have Federated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands on the list. So these are immense spaces to monitor, let alone police and regulate your fishing within.

And these EEZs are really critical to the livelihoods of Pacific Islanders. You know, between 2012 and 2018, roughly, Kittiboss increased its tuna catch by 152 percent. You know, and that's supplanted Mexico as one of the top tuna catching countries in the world. So when you frame it that way, it's kind of surprising, right, that Kittiboss is fishing more than Mexico. But Papua New Guinea is also right up on there, too. And they've increased their catch by about 37 percent over the last few years, that 2012 to 2018 period. And these catches yield an estimated $8.5 billion in sales, and that's just the regulated fishing, according to the Pew Research Center in 2018. So just think the magnitude of that compared to the GDP of Kibos, which in 2022 was about $223 million.

That's a million with an M, not a billion, right? So in those terms, fishing and the effects of IUF really have an outsized impact on their diplomatic outlook, their security and their economy. But even that regulated fishing that we can talk about is very difficult, right, is being pressurized now. You know, another current of geopolitical competition that occurred during the pandemic was the discussion of opening up some of these protected maritime areas to regulated fishing so that these Pacific Island countries could gain revenue from sources while their borders were closed and while tourism was closed. You know, one of the largest and most well-known cases was the PIPA, the Phoenix Island Protected Area, which luckily still is the world's largest maritime protected area within Kittiboss. But in 2021, you know, there's a lot of serious discussion of whether Kittiboss would open that up and open that up to licensed fishing for distant water fishing fleets. And I think when you talk about distant water fishing fleets, you automatically know which countries come to mind and top that list. So that was just another facet of how the pandemic and economic pressures and great power competition came to a head.

Luckily, you know, with the attention and focus of a lot of key players across the community from scientists, marine conservationists, marine biologists, those of us in the security space, we think that is not going to happen. The PIPA is not going to be open. But that just highlights the fact that this is a very difficult challenge for a lot of these Pacific islands to manage their economy and manage their livelihoods. Amidst these global changes. And then finally, you know, we can't go a discussion about security in the Pacific Islands without talking about the rising sea levels caused by climate change. And in places like Kiribati, especially that sea level rise may wipe out their entire future. Right. It may be an existential crisis for them within the 21st century, where even if a majority of their country isn't subsumed by the sea, it may be unlivable. You know, I think another data point that's worth mentioning is that, you know, Kittiboss, for example, is a country no higher in elevation than two meters. So very what we perceive as small changes to the sea level can have dramatic and drastic impacts, not only on the territories and the atolls that it's comprised of, but also the livelihoods of the people, the salinity of freshwater that they are available.

So it's a tough challenge. And, you know, when you frame it that way, you can see how climate change and rising skills are the top security concern and an existential threat to many of these countries. And for the international community, you know, it also provides some unprecedented challenges that we haven't dealt with, because since the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, when closed for sign in 1982, we have dealt with new countries being added, right? We have dealt with countries merging or unifying, but we haven't really dealt with countries who have such large EEZs disappearing from the world

or being depopulated or seeing their majority of their population move elsewhere. So we haven't really grappled with that from an international community perspective, and it's going to have some serious implications to the rule of law, the international order, and how we govern maritime spaces. So I'm going to ask you what we're doing about, but what the region is doing about these challenges in just a second. For the listeners, if you want to go back and listen to Sea Control 304 and Sea Control 333. Sea Control 304 was in the Pacific with Rear Admiral Jean Mathieu Ray, Commander of French Forces there. He talks

quite a bit about the challenge of enforcing compliance within the EZ. You mentioned what a difficult challenge that is. He goes quite in depth there. And Sea Control 333 was Cremario, which is sort of like policing maritime crime in that area. And I want to say both of those are available in French as well as English. So for listeners, you can go check those out. Okay, Zach, back to your talking points, though. How is the region actually addressing those challenges? What sort of approach are you seeing?

Yeah, that's actually a great prompt because one of the bright spots is that there has been this multinational, multilateral approach, very difficult challenges. And I think the French example you brought up is great. You know, we're Admiral Ray and the French Armed Forces in El Paso in the Pacific here have been a key player in that. Just one facet of that multilateral approach.

And in the realm of maritime security, you know, we see a lot of these existing organizations and existing activities really being reinvigorated by this context of great power competition, right? And actually, for us in the security space, that's something we latch on to, right? Competition and threats to our security. So it's really focused a lot of resources and a lot of attention onto the region. yeah i talk about a few of these mechanisms uh and a few of these activities that are going on in the region but first of all i think it's really worth noting how these changes are starting regionally right and it's putting primacy back into the hands of some of the regional leaders here in the in the in the pacific island countries you know the first organization i have to mention

is the pacific islands forum and specifically the pacific islands forum fisheries agency or the ffa is what they call it for short, right? You know, those of us in the military love our acronyms more so here in Oceania. So when you combine Oceania with military, we get lots of acronyms and lots of good acronym soup here. But the FFA, the Foreign Fisheries Agency, is one of the key leaders here in the region when it comes to combating IUUF. So for quick background, you know, the Foreign Fisheries Agency is made up of 17 member countries from across the region, kind of brought together to combat IUUF because everybody realizes they have the same problem. You know, we have large EEDs in relation to our landed territory, so it's best to cooperate and kind of come together as a team to combat IEUF.

And every year, the FFA coordinates several IEUF operations that incorporate Pacific Island Forum members and also regional security members like Australia, New Zealand, France, like Riyad Murray mentioned, and the U.S. to combat IEUF. You know, one of these operations, Operation Kudukudu, just completed in November of 2023 and searched 21.3 million square kilometers of sea, you know, which is more than three times the size of Australia, which is worth noting there. And when they do that, you know, they team up with those actors and team up with the assets, more importantly, from across the region to not only more effectively monitor that that space, look for vessels that may be evading regulation or maybe having unreported or illegal catches. And then they work with our partners to put shipwriters from their local law enforcement onto the team's vessels, focus their efforts, direct them onto targets of interest, and then board those host nation law enforcement agents to investigate further. So it's really a collaborative approach. It's really great. It's having good effect. You know, the challenge is always resourcing, right?

Like, do we have enough resources to do this persistently? And do we have enough resources to do this where it needs to be done and to the scale it needs to be done? But contributing to that effort is the U.S. Coast Guard's Operation Blue Pacific, which I think is also really worth highlighting because they also combine efforts to deter illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing throughout Oceania. And they are a big supporter of FFA-led operations, just like Kuru Kuru that I just mentioned. And I think, you know, you can never stomp the foot for the good work that the Coast Guard does here, whether that's through Honolulu-based ships and District 14 or through Sector Guam or through the wider Pacific areas mission. Those guys do a great job. Those guys and gals do a great job.

And they really are a lead in some of these difficult, high-risk security challenges that we in the military aren't necessarily well-equipped to deal with. So you can't plug the Coast Guard team strong enough to do a great job. But also other Department of Navy initiatives like Mojave for Pax Kua Moana, which engages throughout the region to bolster maritime security, Pacific Fleets Pacific Partnerships, and also Pacific Fleets Oceania Maritime Security Initiatives, OMSI. You know, all those initiatives strengthen maritime domain awareness with our partners, strengthen maritime security, and really prepare Pacific island countries for responding to natural disasters, which are all key themes and all top security concerns for our allies and partners here in the region. And I should say, you know, accompanying all that is a whirlwind of diplomatic activity that is setting the stage and really building upon this cooperation. So from a U.S. or a Western perspective, you know, the U.S.-led partners in the Blue Pacific with U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom is coalescing efforts and doing that in a microcosm to support the wider regional efforts. It's also with noting that U.S.-Pacific Partnership Strategy was released in 2022, which is the first ever strategy of its kind for the region. So that's unprecedented.

And not only was it released in 2022, but it also mirrors a lot of the language and security concerns of the Bo Declaration, which was issued by the Pacific Islands Forum. So you see the U.S. partnership strategy very much aligning to the original strategy to approach many of these difficult problems. So there's a lot of movement in the right direction there. But I'll take a quick pause here, you know, if there's any questions or any other things you want to kind of interject before going on. No, that was a lot. I am going to transition from that, though, because one of the surprises of the article was that you pointing out the region is actually benefiting greatly from the increased competition. So can you explain how that's the case? sure you know as i mentioned uh they're both positive and negative right it's difficult to quantify uh the benefits um for the positives that we talked about you know there is increased focus attention and most importantly resourcing towards the region uh so that that transits across you

know all measures of national power from diplomatic informational military uh and economic and it's really coalescing on the efforts and resources to have the maximum effect in line with the security objectives set by people here in the region. So I think that's, you know, definitely been the brightest spot. But there are downsides to that, obviously, right? I think it's worth talking about that. Some of the fears in the region are that this, Oceania will become militarized again, right? And again, worth noting that a lot of the countries in the region don't even have militaries, right? They have police forces or maritime security agencies, because there's this real fear that we're going to become a battleground again. And it's hard to overstate, you know, what

a traumatic experience World War II was for a lot of these Pacific Island communities. And there's a real fear of returning to that. And even after World War II, you know, we have to talk about the legacy of nuclear tests in the region and the associated devastation that came from those tests. It left a long, long scar on the community here. And although also worth remembering that some of those tests didn't end until the 1990s or the 1980s, so a very recent memory and a long scar. So amidst these benefits from, you know, the geopolitical focus and the resourcing that is associated with great power competition, there is a very serious concern, and I think one worth addressing, that, you know, the region is going to become militarized. So we have to manage these tensions, we have to manage these considerations, but the attention is bringing focus, which is the starting point for all future action.

So what, in your opinion, and I know this is a big question, so feel free to take it wherever you want, but what, in your opinion, does the future hold for the region where it concerns maritime security? Right, great question. And from an indigenous perspective, I'm not going to lie, the future is bleak for some, right? If you're on some of these low-lying countries, your country may not exist by the end of this century. And that's heartbreaking, right? So coming from, you know, finally gaining independence after, in some cases, 300 years or more or so of colonization, the devastation of World War II, like we talked about, gaining your independence after this prolonged period of transition, only to lose that within 100 years of a country being created is really heartbreaking for a lot of these people. But, you know, I am an American, and therefore I'm an eternal optimist. So there are some bright sides.

There are some upsides, right? I would say that the action and diplomatic initiatives spurred by Great Park competition and spurred by these growing challenges to the region are providing some new opportunities that we haven't necessarily considered before, right? We talked about some of the U.S. diplomatic initiatives, but across the region, you know, Australia is taking a leading step in thinking about more creative ways to deal with this, whether that's creating migration pathways for people to pursue education, pursue jobs and pursue work and livelihoods in other countries. Tuvalu, for example, is exploring the potential of a future of a digital future to capture all their history and culture digitally for the world to share, even if their islands and territories are disappearing. So people and countries are really thinking about innovative ways to sustain themselves here in the future. And, you know, I think very broadly, you know, this is Americans' perspective, but I think there's a real opportunity for us as Americans to leave our legacy on these Pacific Island countries and in the region.

Because Pacific Island countries really are the modern day manifestation of the American story. You know, after centuries of colonization, like we talked about, repression, war, pacific island countries finally gained their independence and are now seen as equals in the international community and that stature and respect may not exist in different versions of the international war order and pacific islanders especially those in the gopher states you know the common factor free association are very closely linked to the united states and in many cases many of them are american citizens or have become american citizens you know worth mentioning that uh you know the freely associated states of you know republican marshall islands friday

States of Micronesia, Palau, have some of the highest enlistment rates in the U.S. military, for example. And if you haven't watched the documentary, Island Soldiers, highly recommend it. It's a must watch. And it really very succinctly and very well explains some of these challenges that the U.S. military members from Pacific Island countries have faced. So in many ways, what we do as Americans over the next decades will determine the legacy we leave behind in the region and to the world. well unfortunately that's all that we have time for today i will say we'll drop a link to island soldiers as well in the show notes so folks can find that online and your previous episode zach

was a sea control 255 again with walker mills as i was talking about the coast watchers programs but thank you for coming back today um where can we find you online what are you working on next yeah first off thank you for having me back jared uh you can find me online always as my super secretive Twitter handle at Zach underscore Ota. So whether you prefer to call it Twitter or X, you can always find me there. As you know, I'm very passionate about the Pacific

and my current work is focused on the employment of Marine Corps doctrine in the Pacific, both past and in the future. So looking towards the past, I'm writing a historical piece about the Marine Corps' amphibious warfare doctrine in the rise of World War II, its employment

in the Pacific, but also how that very well-known doctrine combined with years of experience working with local populations, working in counterinsurgencies to produce victory on Guadalcanal in 1942. So you should see that work coming out along with the work of many other talented authors in an upcoming Marine Corps University press publication. Also, I'm a non-resident fellow with the Marine Corps University's Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare. So always working with them to deal with the emerging challenges to the maritime security space. no that sounds awesome

let us know when that comes out we'd love to bring you back and discuss it but thank you again for joining us to the listeners thank you for tuning in we'll see you next time © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon