Whither Command of the Commons
* Report: Whither Command of the Commons? Choosing Security Over Control. New America Foundation, 2011
URL = http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/whither_command_of_the_commons
Summary
David Morris:
"A New America Foundation (NAF) hosted conference in Washington, D.C. called “Beyond Primacy: Rethinking American Grand Strategy and the Command of the Commons.” At the conference NAF released a formal report on the subject: Whither Command of the Commons? Choosing Security Over Control.
The authors, Sameer Lalwani, Research Fellow at NAF and Joshua Shifrinson, Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School explained their perspective, “This paper…takes U.S. command of the commons as a given, but asks whether there are less costly and more appropriate ways to achieve it in an increasingly multi-polar world.” “Command of the commons”, they explain, means “the ability to project military power and engage in trade at times and places of its choosing while denying the same privileges to others.”
...
A commons is widely accepted to have certain characteristics. Resources are collectively owned and shared. A commons is inclusive rather than exclusive. People can access it on a more or less equal basis. Benefits are equitably shared. A commons is meant to be preserved. The military has a structure and a mission antithetical to the preservation and expansion of the commons. To call for the military to command the commons is to call for its weakening and decline. Perhaps the authors recognize this since the piece talks only about commanding the commons. There is nothing about protecting the commons.
The NAF report focuses on the “maritime commons” but never mentions the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), a legal document the emerged from a movement to recognize the seas and the sea beds as commons to be used for the benefit of humanity, equitably shared.
...
Michael Renner may have best summed up the relationship of the military to the environment. “A world that wants to make peace with the environment cannot continue to fight wars or to sacrifice human health and the earth’s ecosystems preparing for them.”
I realize the New America Foundation did not invent the phrase “command of the commons”. The term has crept into military writing over the last few years, perhaps beginning with a 2003 article by Barry Rosen entitled, “Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony”.
But 2011 is a historical moment. A worldwide movement has arisen to defend and expand the commons at the same time strong sentiment exists in this country that we cannot continue to police the world. What we need now is a report that talks about the military AND the commons and explores whether the relationship between the two can become more supportive and less hostile." (http://www.onthecommons.org/military-and-commons)