(little) Gunboat diplomacy in the Black Sea : Montreux Convention
Fo’c’sle | 27.08.2008 22:50 | Anti-militarism | World
Everyone should know what "gunboat diplomacy" means. It's a term which describes the pursuit of diplomatic goals accompanied by an exagerrated show of naval force. When a US fleet sails up to your coast & you didn't invite them - that's gunboat diplomacy. When a bunch of ocean kayaks sail into Rossport in Mayo - that's something else.
The Russians have this evening issued an interesting response to the presence of NATO & US warships in the Black Sea. They've fished out the "Montreux Convention" with its prohibition of guns of a calibre larger than eight inches (203 mm) belonging to non-Black Sea coastal states.
The Russians have this evening issued an interesting response to the presence of NATO & US warships in the Black Sea. They've fished out the "Montreux Convention" with its prohibition of guns of a calibre larger than eight inches (203 mm) belonging to non-Black Sea coastal states.
Robert Jenkins kept his cut ear for 7 years before showing it to Parliament
At the moment happy pictures are being shown of US coastal guard vessel Dallas (WHEC 716) which is named after name Alexander J. Dallas, the Secretary of the Treasury under President James Madison (1814-1816) & not the city Dallas in Texas which was named after U.S. Vice President, George Mifflin Dallas (1792 - 1864).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7583801.stm
the USCGC Dallas has been seen (perhaps not as often as the soap-opera Dallas) in the east of Europe's mediterranean Sea and even in the Black Sea on many occassions before. In her long history she has even played a part in the Vietnam war which if we remember correctly started because of a bit of a staged "boat incident". She was of course built with its 5 inch guns to defend the US coast line (as the title coastguard ship would lead you to believe) many many thousands of leagues to the west but the USA is an expansive thoughtful nation which spotting the gap in uninterested altruistic humanitarian meddling left after the RNLI people couldn't find enough raffle ticket sellers in the Crimea decided to help Georgia with its naval aspirations.
Oh yes - they also improved her gun and changed the calibre from 5 inches to 76 milimetres. Which the sharpest reader will agree was a good way of making the previous 5 inches within the "Montreux Convention" seem just a bit longer than the 76 millimetres or 2.9572 inches which are also within the terms of the convention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Dallas_(WHEC-716)
But gun boat diplomacy is not just about the calibre, length or girth of your gun in these modern times. "In the 1960s, the US sent warships carrying 305 mm calibre ASROC missiles through the Straits, prompting Soviet protests. The Turkish government rejected the Soviet complaints, pointing out that guided missiles were not guns and that such weapons had not even existed at the time of the Convention's signature so were not restricted by the Convention." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Turkish_Straits
The Russians who are a Black sea coastal nation can bring as many boats with little guns as they like legally through the straits, except of course for hulking aircraft carriers. But they have did so in 1976 and again in 1991 by the craft ruse of renaming aircraft carriers as "heavy aircraft carrying cruisers". Oh but neither the boys at NATO or the girls of the admiralty or RNLI were fooled for a moment. At present the Russian contribution to gunboat diplomacy is the guided missile cruiser RFS Moskva which is docked in Abkhazia because the Abkhazians have taken great fright of NATO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFS_Moskva
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29574
Before you put sticky back plastic across your whitewashed windows and your dining table and bedding at a 30º angle against the walls & prepare for panic buying with all its usual horribleness - be aware that the good thing about gunboat diplomacy is that it rarely goes anywhere unless there is another war for it latch on to, as a quick look at its history will attest.
It all began with Robert Jenkins or to be precise Jenkin's ear. In 1731 skipper Jenkins, a two-eared or biaural man, was sailing the HMS brig "Rebecca" what were then Spanish waters of the Carribean. A Spanish coastal guard vessel "Ia Isabela" commanded by Julio León Fandiño boarded the British boat and in an altercation & moment of general unpleasantness cut off Jenkin's ear (the left one). Skipper Jenkins kept the ear less in hope of corrective plastic surgery and more as a visual aid to stir up anti-Spanish feeling. This was really quite easy to do given that most of the people he showed the ear to were like him British. They had splendidly enjoyed two wars already in the 18th century over the issue of slavery. Indeed, though history doesn't make too much a point of it, Jenkins was quite probably up to his ear(s) in slave trading. After seven years doing the hate-lecture circuit, skipper Jenkins arrived to a a committee of the House of Commons in London, complete with the ear. & the honourable members declared the war of Jenkin's ear which within a year got the better name and justification of "the War of the Austrian Succession" which they enjoyed for the next decade.
The best & most modern examples of gunboat diplomacy have been in the Taiwan straits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_diplomacy#Notable_examples
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Russians invoke the Montreux Convention
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/world/europe/28russia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
that convention -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Turkish_Straits
UN convention on the law of the Sea -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea
good cover of that convention explaining what the Russians are talking about.
Because it does indeed seem if the USA sends its boats in and leaves them there, it will be breaking the law & anyone of us with a kayak will be right within our rights to board their vessels and if not cut the ears & whiskers off their skippers at least get a de ecent donation to the RNLI lifeboat fund.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/naval-arms-control-1936.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7583801.stm the USCGC Dallas has been seen (perhaps not as often as the soap-opera Dallas) in the east of Europe's mediterranean Sea and even in the Black Sea on many occassions before. In her long history she has even played a part in the Vietnam war which if we remember correctly started because of a bit of a staged "boat incident". She was of course built with its 5 inch guns to defend the US coast line (as the title coastguard ship would lead you to believe) many many thousands of leagues to the west but the USA is an expansive thoughtful nation which spotting the gap in uninterested altruistic humanitarian meddling left after the RNLI people couldn't find enough raffle ticket sellers in the Crimea decided to help Georgia with its naval aspirations.
Oh yes - they also improved her gun and changed the calibre from 5 inches to 76 milimetres. Which the sharpest reader will agree was a good way of making the previous 5 inches within the "Montreux Convention" seem just a bit longer than the 76 millimetres or 2.9572 inches which are also within the terms of the convention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Dallas_(WHEC-716) But gun boat diplomacy is not just about the calibre, length or girth of your gun in these modern times. "In the 1960s, the US sent warships carrying 305 mm calibre ASROC missiles through the Straits, prompting Soviet protests. The Turkish government rejected the Soviet complaints, pointing out that guided missiles were not guns and that such weapons had not even existed at the time of the Convention's signature so were not restricted by the Convention."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Turkish_Straits The Russians who are a Black sea coastal nation can bring as many boats with little guns as they like legally through the straits, except of course for hulking aircraft carriers. But they have did so in 1976 and again in 1991 by the craft ruse of renaming aircraft carriers as "heavy aircraft carrying cruisers". Oh but neither the boys at NATO or the girls of the admiralty or RNLI were fooled for a moment. At present the Russian contribution to gunboat diplomacy is the guided missile cruiser RFS Moskva which is docked in Abkhazia because the Abkhazians have taken great fright of NATO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFS_Moskva http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29574 Before you put sticky back plastic across your whitewashed windows and your dining table and bedding at a 30º angle against the walls & prepare for panic buying with all its usual horribleness - be aware that the good thing about gunboat diplomacy is that it rarely goes anywhere unless there is another war for it latch on to, as a quick look at its history will attest.
It all began with Robert Jenkins or to be precise Jenkin's ear. In 1731 skipper Jenkins, a two-eared or biaural man, was sailing the HMS brig "Rebecca" what were then Spanish waters of the Carribean. A Spanish coastal guard vessel "Ia Isabela" commanded by Julio León Fandiño boarded the British boat and in an altercation & moment of general unpleasantness cut off Jenkin's ear (the left one). Skipper Jenkins kept the ear less in hope of corrective plastic surgery and more as a visual aid to stir up anti-Spanish feeling. This was really quite easy to do given that most of the people he showed the ear to were like him British. They had splendidly enjoyed two wars already in the 18th century over the issue of slavery. Indeed, though history doesn't make too much a point of it, Jenkins was quite probably up to his ear(s) in slave trading. After seven years doing the hate-lecture circuit, skipper Jenkins arrived to a a committee of the House of Commons in London, complete with the ear. & the honourable members declared the war of Jenkin's ear which within a year got the better name and justification of "the War of the Austrian Succession" which they enjoyed for the next decade.
The best & most modern examples of gunboat diplomacy have been in the Taiwan straits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_diplomacy#Notable_examples ______________________________________
Russians invoke the Montreux Convention
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/world/europe/28russia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin that convention -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Turkish_Straits UN convention on the law of the Sea -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea good cover of that convention explaining what the Russians are talking about.
Because it does indeed seem if the USA sends its boats in and leaves them there, it will be breaking the law & anyone of us with a kayak will be right within our rights to board their vessels and if not cut the ears & whiskers off their skippers at least get a de ecent donation to the RNLI lifeboat fund.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/naval-arms-control-1936.htm
Fo’c’sle