Naval Studies Research Part 1 (of 2 parts) by Thessayist Network
Naval Studies Research
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Abstract
The research traces the history of the coastguard, focusing primarily on the United Kingdom in light of the fact that it is home to the first coast guard services in the world, provides examples of different coastguards, highlights the service’s missions and objectives, clarifies the importance of the aforementioned and looks towards the future. As the research argues the coastguard’s role, responsibilities and duties have increased over the years and its importance has similarly expanded. The coastguard plays a fundamental role in national security and is a coastal and island nation’s first line of defence. Apart from that, its function as a search and rescue service and as an environmental monitoring and protection one, cannot be underestimated or undervalued. The coast guard is essential in the life of any coastal or island country and its importance is expected to increase.
Introduction
While there are hardly any who are not aware of the presence, aims and objectives of all of the army, the navy and the air force, only a handful of people have a similar awareness of the coastguard. Although some countries, such as the United States, Canada and Japan, define the coast guard as a division of the national military, its importance is generally underestimated (LaGuardia-Kotite and Ridge, 2006). Popular understanding of the coast guard is that it acts as a vessel and life rescue service and, in some instances, to monitor fishing across the national coastlines and waters. This understanding barely touches upon the duties, responsibilities, aims and objectives of both civilian and military coast guard services, nor does it even hint at the fact that the coast guard, in the first and last, is primarily responsible for coastal and port security. In other words, the responsibilities and functions of the coast guard directly tie in with national security (LaGuardia-Kotite and Ridge, 2006).
This research paper, which shall highlight the multiple functions of the coast guard services and illustrate, through an historical overview, the increasing importance of this institution, shall, hopefully, illustrate that insofar as coastal countries are concerned, the coast guard plays an invaluable and vital role; a role which directly contributes to increased national security.
Historical Background
The Coast Guard first emerged in the early nineteenth century and in direct response to an ever growing need to protect coastal areas from smugglers, not to mention rescue services for vessels and fleets in distress (LaGuardia-Kotite and Ridge, 2006). While there is, currently, hardly a coastal country which does not have a coast guard service, tracing its history in the United Kingdom is particularly informative, not just because the first coast guard service emerged in that country but because both civilian and military division of the UK coast guard functioned, and to a degree continues to function, as the model for the same in coastal nations across the world (Thoreaux, 2006).
Prior to expanding upon the genesis of the coastguard and over viewing its historical evolution in Britain, it is interesting to point out that the United States Coastguard strenuously maintains that the historical roots of this service lie in the United States (Beard, 2004). According to this argument, the outbreak of conflict between the United States and Britain regarding the colonisation of North America, is directly responsible for the evolution of the coastguard. In 1740, with the outbreak of the aforementioned war, military commanders realised the imperatives of stationing men along strategic coastal areas for “look-out” duties (Beard, 2004, p. 78). These men were supposed to keep watch over the impending arrival of enemy vessels and to warn the army (Beard, 2004). Insofar as the function of these men was the protection of coastal areas against the possible entry of enemy soldiers via the waterways, the United States insists that the coast guard service evolved in this country.
There is a fundamental weakness to the argument cited in the above, with the nature of that weakness only serving to confirm the claim that the roots of the coast guard lie in Britain. The simple fact of the matter is that the above descried function has been common practice in all coastal and island countries, throughout the centuries, dating back to Ancient Egypt, and intended to protect nations from invasions or military assaults via the seas/oceans (Webb, 2003). Not only did this practice not evolve in the United States but it is distinct from the practices particular to coastguard services. The duties and tasks of the coastguard are far more over-reaching and include, not just the stated, but the protection of coastal areas from the entry of any threat to national security and of all illegal persons and goods (Webb, 2003). The coastguard, as defined, evolved in Britain, not the United States.
Proceeding from the above stated, the history of the coastguard in Britain is both long and complex. The genesis of the coast guard lies in the Preventative water guard, a division of the Royal navy, founded in 1809. The motivation behind the foundation of the Preventative water guard was a perceptible increase in smuggling activities (Webb, 2003). Indeed, perceiving of smuggling as an activity which not only directly violated the law and brought contraband goods into the country, it was regarded as an activity which undermined the security of coastal towns and people. It was to confront this threat to security, therefore, that the Royal Navy formed the Preventative water guard (Webb, 2003).
At the time of its formation in 1809, the duties and responsibilities of the Preventative water guard were limited in range, although not in scope (Webb, 2003). That means to say, while the Preventative water guard was only given two responsibilities, they were considered immensely important ones at the time. The first of these was the active seeking out and capture of smugglers in in-land waterways (Webb, 2003). Within the context of the stated, the water guards were regarded as an invaluable assistance to both Navy shore patrols, which were responsible for the capture of smugglers before they entered inland waters and the Riding Officers, who executed on land anti-smuggling duties (Webb, 2003). As may be inferred from the stated, therefore, prior to the formation of the Preventative water guard, inland waterways were unprotected.
The second responsibility assigned to the Preventative water guard at this early stage of its formation was life rescue. As a coastal nation which was heavily involved in shipping and fishing activities, shipwrecks off the coast was quite common. Accordingly, the Preventative water guard was assigned the responsibility of life rescue following shipwrecks.
The years 1822 and 1831 signify turning points in the history of the coast guard. In 1822, the Preventative water guard integrated with the Riding Officers, implying both the expansion of its scope of activities and greater manpower. It was also equipped with navy vessels which allowed it to venture further into sea (Webb, 2003). In other words, by 1822, the activities of the Preventative water guards expanded beyond the inland waterways to include on-land and in-sea anti-smuggling operations. Hence, just over one decade following its initial formation, the responsibilities and resources of the Preventative water guard significantly expanded. This expansion continued until 1831, at which time the preventative water guards combined with the Coast blockade unit to give rise to the Coast Guard (Webb, 2003).
The birth of the Coast Guard coincided with the expansion of the British Empire, a development which directly influenced the range and scope of the named services’ activities. The expansion of the empire, in essence, meant the expansion of trading and shipping activities, entailing the imperatives of establishing closer guard over the nation’s coasts (Thoreaux, 2006). At this point in time, smuggling activities increased, as did the amount of shipwrecks, compounding the Coast Guard’s importance both as a life-rescue service and a coastal protection unit (Thoreaux, 2006).
The ever-increasing importance of the Coast Guard motivated the passage of the Coast Guard Service Act in 1854, leading to the official birth of the service as it is known today (Scarlett, 1971). As per the said Act, the Coast Guard was assigned three clear cut responsibilities. The first was the protection and defence of the nation’s coasts; the second was the manning of royal navy ships during instances of war or other such emergencies; the third was the protection of the national revenue, entailing the continued combating of smuggling operations (Scarlett, 1971).
As the Coast Guard moved into the twentieth century, the importance of the service and, most especially the coastal defence aspect of it, became all the more apparent. During World War I, the manning of Royal Navy ships often fell to the coast guards and, in the course of just one month, September 1914, 1,400 coast guard personnel lost their lives (Scarlett, 1971). Indeed, during this period in the country’s history, the coast guard was awarded various activities, intimately related to national security and defence. Apart from manning naval vessels, the Coast Guard was further responsible for the disposal of beached mines and for the detection and capture of both spies and saboteurs. World War I had, consequent to the fact that the military was tremendously overstretched, imposed military duties upon the named service (Scarlett, 1971).
In celebration of the Coast Guard centennial in 1925, an Act was passed which, in essence, divided the coast guard into three services. The coast guard, consequent to this Act, became the Naval Signalling Force, the Coast Watching Force and the Coat Prevention Force (Shearer, 1986). As the twentieth century progressed, the Coast Guard’s importance grew and its duties and responsibilities included both civilian and military activities. Indeed, as may be determined from the foregoing historical overview, the importance of this particular service seems to grow with each passing decade, to the extent that one may safely define the Coast Guard as an integral factor in national security and defence, not to mention life and vessel rescue.
Examples of Coastguard
As earlier stated, there is hardly a coastal country which, at present, does not have a Coastguard service, most of which are modelled after the British example. The reason for the aforementioned simply lies in the fact that the British coastguard, or HM Coastguard, is the officially regarded as the world’s first established coastguard service. Apart from HM Coastguard, the most notable ones in the world are the U.S. Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Japanese Maritime Service Agency. Of these, the first and the last shall be briefly discussed in the below in an attempt to acquire a clearer picture of this particular service’s various responsibilities and functions.
The United States Coast Guard, despite its rather late formation in 1915, is the largest in the world. It has approximately 40,000 men and women in active duty, over 8,000 reservists, 35,000 auxiliarists and 7,000 civilian employees (Bread, 2004). Under US law, it is officially recognised as a branch of the US armed forces and is actively involved in a wide array of activities, intimately related to national defence and security. Its duties, apart from search and rescue, involve the enforcement of maritime law, national defence and homeland security. As a means of emphasising the extent to which the US Coast Guard is a national military defence force, its active involvement in every conflict the US has entered into from the twentieth century to the present should be mentioned (Beard, 2004). The implication here is that the United States Coast Guard is, in the main, a military division and is endowed, not only with the responsibility of protecting the coastal areas from the illegal entry of people and goods but, with the responsibility of defending the nation.
Even though its duties primarily tend towards the military, the US Coast Guard is actively involved in the protection of the marine environment and the combating of pollution across the country’s inland waters. The implication, therefore, is that the US Coast Guard is responsible for the protection of the country’s coastlines and inland waters from a vast array of threats, ranging from the military to the environmental. This, in itself, emphasises the singular importance of this particular division of military service.
While the US Coast Guard was selected for brief overview because it is the largest in the world, the rationale behind the selection of the Japanese coast guard service may not be as easily apparent. In fact, were it not for the increasingly militaristic role that the Japanese coast guard has been playing since September 11th, 2001, there would have been little reason to include it in this discussion. In order to clarify this, it is necessary to recall that since the conclusion of World War II and Japan’s defeat, the country has not had a military force. Accordingly, Japan has, over the past six decades adopted a pacifist policy. Within the context of the stated, its coast guard was a civilian one whose duties primarily lay in search and rescue, navigation aid, the monitoring of fishing activities, the prevention of smuggling and the combating of pollution. This role has largely remained unchanged over the decades and even when confronted with N. Korean spy boats and vessels, the Japanese coast guards were notable for their lack of reaction (`From pacifism to populism,’ 2004). In December 2001, however, there was a dramatic change to the operations of the Japanese coast guard. Just three months following the terrorist attacks on the United States, a N. Korean spy boat entered Japan’s territorial waters. Instead of ignoring the situation as it had done numerous times in the past, the Japanese coast guard opened fire on the N. Korean spy boat, precipitating a minor battle which culminated in the injury of several Japanese coast guards and the sinking of the n. Korean vessel (`From pacifism to populism,’ 2004). The importance of this incident emanates from one fact. Specifically stated, Japan does not have a military and is a self-declared pacifist nation. This incident indicates that the role of the Japanese coastguard has dramatically expanding post September 11th, 2001, to include the military defence of the nation when, and if, required.
The preceding examples of coastguards, framed by the earlier, and lengthier discussion on the responsibilities of the British coast guard lead us to an important question. That question pertains to the aims and objectives, or mission of the coastguard. An answer to the aforementioned shall be attempted in the subsequent section.
This is only the first part of a 2-part Sample Paper. Please see Naval Studies Research Part 2 to read the complete article.
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