4 ms·

Why is SCS US’s business? No I’m not from 50cent army.

rsj_hn 5y ago
Generally the U.S. leads a coalition of western nations that protect international shipping via freedom of navigation exercises. So if some country like India declares it owns the Indian Ocean, or China declares it owns the SCS, or Egypt announces it owns the Mediterranean, then the U.S. (and other nations like the U.K., France, etc) will sail through the area as well as acommpany shipping traffic to demonstrate that, no, these are really international waters that anyone has a right to use, and that no one can claim for themselves. This is an important and useful exercise in order to keep important shipping lanes free. This is critical to the functioning of the global economy, on which the U.S., U.K., and other nations depend. It is in their interest to ensure that no nation claims ownership of these global transit routes.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Great answer, and I think there are much broader reasons too: International order is fundamentally anarchy. There is no power - no world government - that can enforce order (the United Nations is just an association, a place where sovereign countries can meet and make arrangements with each other). If the order breaks down, if 'might makes right', then international wars start; wars are bad or catastrophic for everyone. WWII was so destructive that the victors worried that the world could not survive another one (one reason they started the UN and what became the EU) - and that was 75 years ago. The 'US-led rules-based international order' strives maintain an order based on rules (laws), not on might. (Yes, this is all very simplified; motives and actions are not so simple.) A simple example is when Iraq invaded Kuawait in the early 1990s. They had the might, so they took it. The US, openly stating they would maintain international order, drove them out of Kuwait. To reinforce the point, they did it according to international law, and with a coalition of international partners. China seizing the South China Sea is a serious threat to that order - what will China seize next? If the only way to stop them is to fight a war - if there is no rules-based way to do it - the world and the people in it are in big trouble. So the US and allies (which is not only western, but democracies all over including Japan, India, etc.) work to undermine that claim.

Generally the U.S. leads a coalition of western nations that protect international shipping via freedom of navigation exercises. So if some country like India declares it owns the Indian Ocean, or China declares it owns the SCS, or Egypt announces it owns the Mediterranean, then the U.S. (and other nations like the U.K., France, etc) will sail through the area as well as acommpany shipping traffic to demonstrate that, no, these are really international waters that anyone has a right to use, and that no one can claim for themselves. This is an important and useful exercise in order to keep important shipping lanes free. This is critical to the functioning of the global economy, on which the U.S., U.K., and other nations depend. It is in their interest to ensure that no nation claims ownership of these global transit routes.

wolverine876 5y ago
Great answer, and I think there are much broader reasons too: International order is fundamentally anarchy. There is no power - no world government - that can enforce order (the United Nations is just an association, a place where sovereign countries can meet and make arrangements with each other). If the order breaks down, if 'might makes right', then international wars start; wars are bad or catastrophic for everyone. WWII was so destructive that the victors worried that the world could not survive another one (one reason they started the UN and what became the EU) - and that was 75 years ago. The 'US-led rules-based international order' strives maintain an order based on rules (laws), not on might. (Yes, this is all very simplified; motives and actions are not so simple.) A simple example is when Iraq invaded Kuawait in the early 1990s. They had the might, so they took it. The US, openly stating they would maintain international order, drove them out of Kuwait. To reinforce the point, they did it according to international law, and with a coalition of international partners. China seizing the South China Sea is a serious threat to that order - what will China seize next? If the only way to stop them is to fight a war - if there is no rules-based way to do it - the world and the people in it are in big trouble. So the US and allies (which is not only western, but democracies all over including Japan, India, etc.) work to undermine that claim.