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The word "Gwadar" is a combination of two "Balochi" words-"Gwat" means wind and "Dar" means Gateway. so the meaning of Gwadar is "The Gateway of wind". via 500px ift.tt/2fbkyEt
Mud volcano in Gwadar, In Pakistan there are more than 80 active mud volcanoes in Baluchistan province.
Gwadar is Pakistan's emerging port, and a source of hope for the people of an entire province: Balochistan.
I tried to see for myself what dreams it may hold for Pakistan's future.
Gwadar is strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman. The city's strategic, warm-water, deep-sea Gwadar Port was completed in 2007. The port is 47 feet (14 m) deep and handles the largest cargo ships to Pakistan. The city is emerging as a trade hub and a transit for Chinese oil imports. The city has also been taking an increasing role in China's String of Pearls.
Gwadar is one of the few planned cities in Pakistan (others being Faisalabad, Jauharabad, and Islamabad), which have been developed from scratch under an urban master plan. Before development, the town was only a fishing village.
Gwadar ( Pashtoگوادر) also known as Godar (in the southern Pashto accent) is a developing port city on the southwestern Arabian Sea coast of Pakistan. It is the district headquarters of Gwadar District in Balochistan province and has a population of approximately 50,000.
Gwadar is strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman. The city's strategic, warm-water, deep-sea Gwadar Port was completed in 2007. The port is 47 feet (14 m) deep and handles the largest cargo ships to Pakistan. The city is emerging as a trade hub and a transit for Chinese oil imports. The city has also been taking an increasing role in China's String of Pearls.
Gwadar is one of the few planned cities in Pakistan (others being Faisalabad, Jauharabad, and Islamabad), which have been developed from scratch under an urban master plan. Before development, the town was only a fishing village.
Traveling towars Gwadar on Makran Coastal Highway and about 6 kms from Kund Malir, one would be struck with the sublime beauty of the natural rock formations and the smooth road that sneaks its way through the Buzi pass. Buzi pass is the gallery of beautiful artwork of the nature but the most popular ones are "Princess of Hope" and "Sphinx" aka "Lion of Balochistan"
Few of the boats are back while few are about to move to the seas for the fresh fish hunt at Gawadar Fish Harbor.
Coastal Highway, en route to Gwadar
Picture Credit: Asif
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Running along the Arabian Sea coastline, Makran Coastal Highway is one of the most scenic coastal drives in the world. This road is very exciting and sometimes very exposed and driveway in innumerable twists and turns. It runs primarily through Balochistan province between Karachi and Gwadar, passing near the port towns of Ormara and Pasni. via 500px ift.tt/2slx5cg
Jiwani or Jwani, is a town and commercial port that is located along the Gulf of Oman in the Gwadar District of the Balochistan province in Pakistan. It is located near the Pakistani border with Iran.
Very few people have seen the Hingol National Park in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Its nearest approach is from Karachi. Most visitors tend to go to the Hinglaj temple, an important sight for Hindu pilgrims but we managed to go deep into the national park with the Offroad pakistan who have made numerous visits there. Their website is worth a look :- offroadpakistan.com/
Hingol National Park or Hungol National Park (Urdu: ہنگول) is the largest of National Parks of Pakistan. It is on the Makran coast in Balochistan and is approximately 190 km from Karachi. The area was declared reserved in 1988.[1]
The park area covers parts of the three districts: Lasbela, Gwadar and Owaran of Balochistan province. It contains a variety of topographical features and vegetation, varying from arid sub tropical forest in the north to arid montane in the west. Large tracts of the NP are covered with drift sand and can be classified as coastal semi desert. The National Park includes the estuary of the Hingol river which supports a significant diversity of bird and fish species.
Currently, 20 staff members including 18 game watchers, two deputy rangers are responsible for the management of the Park under the guidance of the park Manager who reports to the Conservator and the Secretary Wildlife, Forest, Livestock, Environment and Tourism.
The shrine of Devi Hinglaj, the holiest among the 51 Shakti Peeths of Hinduism is situated in the park. It is a 15km trek from the main road. There is also a dirt track that leads to the site. Several thousand pilgrims visit the shrine each year.
Detailed inventories of wildlife were undertaken in 2006 and will be completed in the first half of 2007. Hingol is known to support at least 35 species of mammals, 65 species of amphibians and reptiles and 185 species of birds. Some 250 plant species were recorded in the initial surveys including 7 yet undescribed species. Many more species are yet to be collected.
The park forms an excellent habitat to wild Sindh Ibex, Afghan Urial and Chinkara Gazelle. Ibex is found in all steep mountain ranges and numerous in the Hinglaj and Rodani Kacho Mountain areas. Total population is estimated over 3000. The Urial populations are small and occur in isolated populations. The Machi and Upper Pachhri Mountains harbour the largest populations. Total population is less than 1000. The Chinkara occurs in good numbers along the great rivers (Nal-Hingol, Arra, Babro-Mar) in the Northern Plains and in the Harian and Maniji-Gurangatti valley areas. Elsewhere populations have been extirpated are very low. The total populations are preliminary estimated between 800-1200.
The Hingol River banks, estuary and mudflats forms an important habitat for migratory birds. About 40% of the bird species is related to water habitats. Migratory birds listed to visit Hingol include Dalmatian and Spot-billed Pelican, Sociable Plover, Spoonbills, Black Ibis, Black and White Stork. The Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata) visits the plains and valleys.
The River Hingol has been nurturing crocodiles for centuries. The Marsh Crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) occurs over large areas along the Hingol-Nal and some tributaries up to more than 100 km inland. The total population is about 50. There are several beaches along the more than 100 km coastline, however few tirtles visit the beaches nowadays. Historical records includes Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) and Green Marine Turtles (Chelonia mydas). The vulnerable Spiny Tail Lizard (Uromastyx hardwickii) a mainly vegetarian lizard finds its most western distribution in Hingol.
Mammals in the park include Leopard, Jungle Cat, Caracal and Indian Desert Cat, Indian Fox, Bengal Fox and Sand Fox, Golden Jackal, Sindh Ibex, Afghan Urial, Chinkara Gazelle, Honey Badger, Indian Pangolin, Hedgehog (probably more than one species), Indian Crested Porcupine, Indian Grey Mongoose, Five striped Palm Squirrel, Wild Boar, Cape Hare and Desert Hare, Cairo Spiny mouse, Grey Spiny Mouse, Persian Jird, Indian Desert Jird and Libyian Jird, House Mouse, Roof Rat, and Mouse like Hamster. Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) and Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena) are on the brink of extinction. The Leopard and Caracal populations are low.
The park has very few caves/ grottos, including one in the Dhrun Mountains with a bat population.
Birds in the park include Houbara Bustard, Dalmatian and Spot-billed Pelican, Bonnelli's eagle, Imperial eagle, Tawny eagle, Golden eagle, Eurasian griffon vulture, Egyptian vulture, Cinereous vulture, Lagger falcon, Red-headed merlin, Kestrel, Close-Barred sandgrouse, Grey partridge, See See partridge, Stone Curlew, Indian sand grouse, Coronetted sand grouse, Painted sand grouse, Eagle owl, Sind pied woodpecker, Hume's chat, Brown rock pipit, Striped buning, Finche larks, Hoopoe, Shrikes and Wheatears.
The Marsh Crocodile, Olive Ridley and Green Marine Turtles, Desert Monitor lizard, Yellow Monitor lizard, and different species of lizard and chameleon have been found in the park.
The government is all set to slice land off the Hingol National Park, the country’s largest, as the Pakistan Air Force and another defence-related organisation eye the prized real estate near the estuary whose value is likely to increase phenomenally once the Gwadar port starts functioning.
Sources in the Balochistan revenue department told Dawn that while the PAF has asked for around 80,000 acres (320 km²), including 23,000 acres (93 km²) in the national park, Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission’s demand is for eight mauzas. [2]
Ormara (Urdu: اورمارا) is a port city (25° 16' 29N 64° 35' 10E) located in the Makran or coastal region of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. It is located 240 km west of Karachi and 230 km east of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. This port is also mentioned in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as Oraea.
The Karakoram Highway (KKH) is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 m/15,397 ft as confirmed by both SRTM and multiple GPS readings. It connects China's Xinjiang region with Pakistan's Northern Areas and also serves as a popular tourist attraction. It is also referred to as National Highway 35 or N35. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is also referred to as the "Ninth Wonder of the World
The Karakoram Highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was built by the governments of Pakistan and China, and was completed in 1986, after 20 years of construction. 810 Pakistani and 82 Chinese workers lost their lives,[1] mostly in landslides and falls, while building the highway. The route of the KKH traces one of the many paths of the ancient Silk Road.
On the Pakistani side, the road was constructed by FWO (Frontier Works Organization), employing the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers. Presently, the Engineer-in-Chief branch of the Pakistani Army is working on a project documenting the history of the highway. It is being written by Brigadier (Retired) Muhammad Mumtaz Khalid, who oversaw its construction.
The highway, connecting the Northern Areas of Pakistan to the ancient Silk Road, runs approximately 1,300 km from Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region of China, to Islamabad, located in the Chilas Distric of Pakistan. An extension of the highway meets the Grand Trunk Road at Hassanabdal, near Islamabad, Pakistan.
The highway cuts through the collision zone between the Eurasian and Indian plates, where China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan come within 250km of each other. Owing largely to the extremely sensitive state of the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan, the Karakoram highway has strategic and military importance.
On June 30, 2006, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Pakistani Highway Administration and China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) to rebuild and upgrade the Karakoram Highway. According to SASAC, the width of the highway will be expanded from 10 metres to 30 metres, and its transport capacity will be increased three times. As well, the upgraded road will be constructed to particularly accommodate heavy-laden vehicles and extreme weather conditions.
China and Pakistan are also planning to link the Karakoram Highway to the southern port of Gwadar in Balochistan through the Chinese-aided Gwadar-Dalbandin railway, which extends up to Rawalpindi.
The Pakistani section of the highway is 806 km long. It starts from Havelian, near Abbottabad. The highway meets the Indus River at Thakot, and continues along the river until Bunji, where the Gilgit River joins the Indus River. This is the place where three great mountain ranges meet, the Hindukush, the Himalaya and the Karakoram. The western end of the Himalayas, marked by the 9th highest peak in the world, Nanga Parbat can be seen from the highway. The highway passes through the capital of the Northern Areas, Gilgit, and continues to the beautiful valleys of Nagar and Hunza, along the Hunza River. Many of the highest mountains, lakes and glaciers in the Karakoram can be directly seen from the highway in this section. Finally, the highway meets the Pakistan-China border at Khunjerab Pass.
The Chinese Section of the Karakoram Highway follows the north-south Sarykol ('Yellow Lake') valley just west of the Tarim Basin, which is barely visible in the satellite image at left. The road from Kashgar goes southwest about 80 km and then turns west to enter the Gez (Ghez) River canyon between Chakragil mountain on the north and Kongur mountain on the south. From the Gez canyon the population becomes Kirgiz. Having climbed up to the valley, the road turns south past Kongur, Karakul Lake and Muztagh Ata on the east. Below Muztagh Ata a new road goes west over the Kulma Pass to join the Pamir Highway in Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan. The main road continues over a low pass (where the population becomes Tajik) and descends to Tashkurgan. Further south a valley and jeep track leads west towards the Wakhjir Pass to the Wakhan Corridor. Next the road turns west to a checkpost and small settlement at Pirali, and then the Khunjerab Pass, beyond which is Pakistan, the Khunjerab River and Hunza.
(In 747 Gao Xianzhi, a Tang general crossed the Broghol Pass into what is now Pakistan - the furthest Chinese penetration in this direction. He was later defeated at the Battle of Talas, and the Chinese withdrew from the region.)
Gwadar name is composed of two balochi words, which are "Gwad" and "Darr" meaning "AIR" and "Door" respectively. Therefore door of Air, Air way, Breeze way can be termed for Gwadar in literary terms.
Gwadar is located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, on the Arabian Sea. It is strategically located between three increasingly important regions: the oil-rich Middle East, heavily populated South Asia and the economically emerging and resource-laden region of Central Asia. The Gwadar Port was built on a turnkey basis by China and signifies an enlarging Chinese footprint in a critically important area. Opened in spring 2007 by then Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, in the presence of Chinese Communications Minister Li Shenglin, Gwadar Port is now being expanded into a naval base with Chinese technical and financial assistance.
These boys trade in the small fish which fishermen leave after picking up the big fish for their businesses.
“Strengthening tsunami and earthquake preparedness in the coastal areas of Pakistan”, is working to provide policy and operational support, at both the national and sub-national levels, through evidence-based research and analysis. The project also aims to enhance the resilience of coastal communities to coastal hazards in Sindh and Balochistan and expand their livelihood opportunities. It especially focuses on some of the most vulnerable coastal communities of Karachi West, Malir and District Gwadar.
The project is being implemented with the coordination and technical support of NDMA, Sindh and Balochistan PDMAs, through Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), NED University of Engineering and Technology and Pakistan Red Crescent Society.
Credit: Shuja Hakim/UNDP Pakistan
Pishukan is a small fishing town near Gwadar, Pakistan. Fishermen use Iranian made fiber glass boats with Yamaha 15HP engines.
Traveling towars Gwadar on Makran Coastal Highway and about 6 kms from Kund Malir, one would be struck with the sublime beauty of the natural rock formations and the smooth road that sneaks its way through the Buzi pass. Buzi pass is the gallery of beautiful artwork of the nature but the most popular ones are "Princess of Hope" and "Sphinx" aka "Lion of Balochistan"
The Makran Coastal Highway is located primarily in Balochistan, Pakistan. It follows the Arabian Sea coast from Karachi to Gwadar.
The word "Gwadar" is a combination of two "Balochi" words-"Gwat" means wind and "Dar" means Gateway. so the meaning of Gwadar is "The Gateway of wind". via 500px ift.tt/2gjVhaH
Ganz is located at West corner of Balochistan near border of Iran. The nearest famous town is Jewani and Gwadar. The noticeable attractions are nearby mountains that are shaped in particular way to form a pallet like structure. Ganz beach has been recommended for surfing by surf-forecast website and many others because of its fairly consistent tides and surfing waves. It is one of the undiscovered areas of Balochistan province. Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan in relation to area size although hosts very small amount of population as compared to other provinces. Balochistan is full of rocky mountains to sandy beaches, lakes, hiking opportunities, canals, fords, gardens and diverse extreme weather conditions from blazing hot summer to freezing cold winter. via 500px ift.tt/2fXR634
Balochistan[1](Balochi: بلوچستان) or Baluchistan is an arid, mountainous region that includes part of southern and southwestern Afghanistan. It extends into southeastern Iran and western Pakistan and is named after the Baloch people.[2][3]
taken from wikipedia.
In this photo released by the Pakistani Government, Pakistani men walk on an island that appeared 2 kilometres off the coastline of Gwadar on September 25, 2013, after an earthquake the day before. The National Institute of Oceanography has sent a team to survey the island, which stands about 20 metres (70 feet) high. Pakistani rescuers strived to reach victims of a huge earthquake that killed more than 230 people and toppled thousands of mud-built homes when it hit the country's southwest with enough force to create a new island off the coast. AFP PHOTO/ Pakistan Government.
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Beautiful Jiwani coast camping (District Gwadar, Balochistan, Pakistan). The site is famous for green turtles.
U.S. Military Budget and the Threat to China
onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6496.shtml
Analysis
The United States military budget -- the threat to China
By Nicolas J S Davies
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Oct 26, 2010, 00:23
Last January, Carl Conetta of the Commonwealth Institute’s Project for Defense Alternatives wrote a paper titled “An Undisciplined Defense: Understanding the $2 Trillion Surge in US Defense Spending.” Conetta looked at the doubling of U.S. military spending since 1998, and concluded that only about half of the increase was linked to the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or to terrorism. Remarkably, this left over $1 trillion of extra U.S. military spending over the past 12 years unaccounted for -- not justified by any policy or strategy that U.S. political leaders have explained to the American public or to the rest of the world.
Equally disturbing, Conetta explained that the surge in military spending between 1999 and 2010 differed qualitatively from the 43 percent spending surge of the 1960s (Vietnam) and the 57 percent surge in the 1980s (Reagan) in that this was not just a peak in a fluctuating historical cycle but rather an unprecedented new baseline for U.S. military spending. From 1951 to 2002, U.S. military spending averaged $425 billion per year (in 2010 dollars) and never fluctuated more than 25 percent above or below that figure. Now it’s 63 percent above it and rising, and the government has no plans to scale back to the “normal” level established during the previous 50 years of U.S. military dominance.
This dramatic increase in military spending contrasts sharply with what the taxpayers who are funding it say they want. A PIPA poll in 2005, when the US military budget was “only” $521 billion per year, found that the average American would choose to cut it by $163 billion. This would have brought the total military budget down to $358 billion, close to the 1998 level when adjusted for inflation, and well within the previous “normal” range. (http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/DefenseSpending/FedBudget_Mar05/FedBudget_Mar05_rpt.pdf) But of course that’s not what happened. Instead, military spending grew another 35 percent over the next 5 years to give the public double the military budget it said it wanted.
Conetta explained the spending splurge in terms of the conflicting dividends of the end of the Cold War: the peace dividend and the power dividend. Even as bases were closed and the numbers of personnel in the U.S. armed forces were reduced in the 1990s, U.S. leaders were at the same time determined to capitalize on the collapse of the U.S.S.R. to expand American power around the world. As we now know, our leaders squandered the peace dividend and their pursuit of the power dividend led us into unwinnable wars and unsustainable hostile military occupations, but the disastrous results of their megalomania have yet to lead to a more rational policy or a genuine recommitment to peace.
Other factors driving the “splurge” were the desire to obtain new weapons and technology without giving up “legacy” systems from the Cold War; and underlying confusion regarding overall U.S. goals and global resistance to them. These factors combined to result in “cover your ass” planning for virtually unlimited contingencies.
The title of Conetta’s paper, “An Undisciplined Defense,” emphasized his view of this whole problem as a huge waste of resources driven by powerful institutional interests and the failure of anyone in government to impose choices, priorities or discipline. In Conetta’s narrative, U.S. taxpayers are the victims, and the greatest risk is that unsustainable runaway military spending and the further militarization of the U.S. economy will turn the United States into something like the “suicide state” that Osama Bin Laden promised it would in 2001.
But even if Conetta and Bin Laden are entirely right, this huge military build-up is justified in the minds of senior officials by the ways they can use the unprecedented military forces they now have at their disposal. It is no consolation to the victims of American aggression in Iraq or Afghanistan that the killing of their loved ones and the devastation of their countries was driven by vested interests and undisciplined budget priorities. On the contrary, it adds insult to injury.
So, lack of discipline and institutional interests aside, we must still ask: what has the U.S. Department of Defense spent an extra trillion dollars on since 1998, how does it plan to spend trillions more as it further bankrupts our country, and how and where is it likely to use those forces and weapons in the future?
Conetta’s analysis of the increase in U.S. military spending provided some useful data on where the extra money has gone. Of the missing trillion, $580 billion was categorized as non-war-related “modernization” or “procurement, research and development.” That’s right, our government has spent an extra $580 billion on weapons and equipment that are not related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or to terrorism. Incredibly for a country engaged in two wars, this was more than double the $264 billion that was spent on extra weapons and equipment for those wars or to replace equipment destroyed in them. And remember that all these expenses are in addition to the “normal” 1998 baseline expense of $105 billion per year for weapons and equipment, which did not count as “extra” spending at all in Conetta’s analysis.
More incredibly still, the Air Force and the Navy have taken greater shares of the “modernization” spending boom than the Army and the Marines despite their leading role in two ground wars. Air Force procurement dominated in the first period (1999-2002), while procurement for the Navy has come to the fore since 2007. The non-war-related splurge was only temporarily eclipsed by actual war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan during the middle period (2003-2006), and war-fighting may once again be competing with ship-building during the new escalation in Afghanistan.
Conetta attributed the Navy’s extra procurement spending mainly to “discordant modernization” or the reluctance to sacrifice Cold War ships and weapons to free up money for new ones, leaving the taxpayers saddled with the combined expenses of both.
Since 1999, the Navy has added two new “big-deck” aircraft carriers to the nine it already had, and it has three more in the pipeline to replace one older one that will be taken out of service in 2013. It also has four smaller “amphibious assault ships” in the works to replace two older ones, for a total of twelve of these smaller helicopter carriers. It has launched 32 new destroyers since 1998, and has started building a whole new class of Zumwalt “land-attack” destroyers, an unabashedly offensive weapons platform, and a new class of shallow-draught “littoral combat ships” to operate in shallow water close to foreign shores.
Utterly irrelevant to America’s current wars, the Navy has introduced two new classes of attack submarine since 1997, with 8 built and 13 more planned at a rate of two per year. It has also converted 4 of its ballistic missile submarines to carry conventional guided missiles. It still has 14 nuclear-armed submarines prowling the world’s oceans with 24 Trident missiles and 192 nuclear warheads each (of up to 475 kilotons). Together they pack about 100,000 times the destructive force and poisonous radiation unleashed on Hiroshima, or about half of the U.S. nuclear “deterrent.”
The build-up of U.S. naval forces suggests that America’s leaders are preparing for a very different kind of warfare than the guerilla wars against lightly-armed resistance forces that they face in Afghanistan or Iraq. However, as a result of its arms build-up, the U.S. share of global military spending has increased from 28 percent during the Cold War to about 50 percent today, making the notion of any other country posing a conventional military threat to the United States seem absurd. The rest of the world put together barely matches U.S. military expenditures, so this is essentially a one-sided arms race.
On the other hand, after a century of economic dominance, the United States is for the first time facing the reality that it will soon be overtaken by China as the largest economy in the world. This has serious implications for the competitive advantage that the United States has enjoyed in many sectors of the global economy for generations. It need not by any means signal the end of America’s prosperity any more than its own rise meant the end of prosperity for Britain, France or Germany, but it will mean the end of the central political and strategic role that the United States has become accustomed to playing in world affairs. The United States will have to carve out a new role in a world that it can no longer dominate as it has for the past 70 years.
So where does the U.S. military build-up fit into this picture? Why is the United States pouring money into new weapons and naval forces at precisely the moment that it desperately needs to invest in next-generation energy technology; to educate a highly skilled work force to compete on a more level global playing-field; to develop more balanced relationships with people and governments in the emerging global South instead of threatening them; and to ensure social protections for our most vulnerable citizens during an inevitably challenging transitional period?
When we examine the economic rise of China, two crucial things stand out. The first is that it is following essentially the same path to economic development as other successful countries in the past. Alexander Hamilton based the United States’ early industrial policy on protecting its “infant industries” from competitive British imports. Germany, Japan, South Korea and the BRIC countries today have followed similar paths to development, using state power to protect and invest in key sectors while selectively embracing “free trade” policies and rhetoric to open up export markets and gain access to foreign resources. Other governments in the global South, particularly in Latin America, are belatedly applying the same principles to their economies, reforming previously subservient client relationships with the United States.
The United States will either develop new trade and economic patterns and more balanced relations with other countries or it will fall back on the threat of force that underpinned those relationships in the past to try to restore the kind of regimes and relations that have been so favorable to U.S. interests. This is a critical and fundamental choice: a crossroads in the conduct of U.S. foreign relations. As we continue to deplete many of the world’s natural resources at an alarming rate, will the allocation of scarce resources in the 21st century be determined by peaceful negotiation and cooperation, or by military competition and the threat and use of force?
The real significance of the escalation of U.S. military spending is the implication that America’s leaders have so far chosen the latter. Even in military terms, this can be only a futile and tragic course. If the United States puts China in a position where it has to respond militarily, its wealth and economic strength will enable it to do so, as surely as the United States was able to convert its growing economic power into military power in the 20th century. An arms race would bankrupt the United States, not China, and war between the United States and China with 21st century weapons could kill hundreds of millions of people or even destroy human society as we know it.
Rather than directly threatening China, the United States is expanding its naval presence on the world’s oceans to control the trade routes on which China’s economic growth depends. It has placed China’s second largest foreign oil supplier, Iran, squarely in the sights of its war machine. And it is escalating a war over critical pipeline and overland trade routes through Afghanistan and Central Asia that could link China more securely to many of its import and export markets.
This brings us to the second critical factor in the rise of China. The global economic growth of the past two centuries has been based on the development and use of fossil fuels. Even though China is already investing far more than the United States in next-generation sustainable energy technology, its current growth is being fueled by coal and oil. Like the U.S. and tragically for our world’s climate, China is self-sufficient in coal and it faces no critical shortage of natural gas, but the supply of oil for its transportation sector is more vulnerable.
Like the United States, China has substantial but dwindling oil reserves. And, like the United States, it already imports about 60 percent of the oil it consumes. China’s sources of imported oil are quite diversified. Its largest suppliers are Saudi Arabia (21 percent), Iran (15 percent), Angola (13 percent), Russia (8 percent) and Oman (8 percent). Half its imported oil comes from the Middle East and 30 percent from Africa, and this is all transported by sea. China is expanding energy cooperation with Russia and building pipelines from Russia and Central Asia that will be more secure than the shipping lanes through the Malacca Straits and the Indian Ocean. The 1,400-mile Kazakhstan-China Pipeline is already carrying oil to China from the Caspian Sea.
But even as China develops trade links with its continental neighbors and shifts investment to its domestic economy, it will still be heavily dependent on ocean transport for exports and imports. It has therefore been investing in a chain of port facilities and potential future naval bases along what U.S. military analysts have dubbed the “string of pearls,” stretching from China to the coast of Africa. China has built or expanded ports at Port Sudan (Sudan), Gwadar (Pakistan), Chittagong (Bangladesh), Sittwe (Myanmar), Lamu (Kenya) and the largest and most strategic port in South Asia at Hambantuta on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. China has also offered to build a canal across the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand, which is only 28 miles wide at its narrowest point, to provide a safer and more direct route to and from the Indian Ocean.
On the military front, China has been careful to give the United States no pretext to treat its rise as a military threat. It has concentrated on economic development and lived by the “24 character” strategy laid out by former Premier Deng Xiaoping: “Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership.” U.S. analysts have zeroed in on “hide our capacities and bide our time” as a stealthy strategy to eventually challenge U.S. dominance, while Chinese commentators emphasize “never claim leadership” as a commitment to multilateralism and a renunciation of any future bid for hegemony.
But China has quietly been developing some critical defensive capabilities. It has been studying aircraft carrier designs and seems to be planning to build small carriers to protect its tankers and cargo ships along the “string of pearls” and other trade routes. Its extensive ballistic missile program has developed the Dong Feng 21D, a land-based anti-ship ballistic missile that could possibly sink a U.S. aircraft carrier at a range of 900 miles. The Dong Feng 21D is a powerful deterrent to the aggressive deployment of U.S. naval power anywhere near China’s coast, which is already patrolled by 52 attack submarines, 77 destroyers and frigates and hundreds of smaller missile- and torpedo-armed patrol boats.
China seems to be taking effective steps to counter threats from the United States, and at a fraction of the cost of the American “splurge.” It remains to be seen whether this will be effective in the long run. If the United States is determined to use military force to control access to the world’s dwindling natural resources in the 21st century, it will take even more skillful management on the Chinese side and unprecedented international diplomacy to avoid a serious military confrontation or a debilitating arms race.
The best possible outcome would be for the United States to back away from its policy of military threats and aggression and renew its commitment to the United Nations Charter and international law. Current U.S. policy explicitly threatens the use of unilateral force in flagrant violation of the U.N. Charter. The 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review formalized this illegitimate position as official policy wherever U.S. “vital interests” are at stake and defined those interests to include “ensuring uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources.”
Subsequent U.S. policy statements have reiterated this position, and the invasion of Iraq demonstrated the seriousness of U.S. threats. The 2010 U.S. National Security Strategy repeated that, “The United States must reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend our nation and our interests, yet we will also seek to adhere to standards that govern the use of force.” The United States Constitution defines international treaties as a binding part of the “Supreme Law of the Land,” not merely as “standards” or “norms” that U.S. leaders must pay lip service to as they violate them.
The U.N. Charter prohibits the threat as well as the use of force precisely because the one leads so insidiously to the other. Saying that “all options are on the table,” including illegal threats of aggression, poisons negotiations and undermines accommodation by either side. The side making the threats will always be inclined to ratchet up its threats rather than give ground, especially when it is emboldened by the illusion of military superiority, and the threatened party will be equally reluctant to give ground because no political leader can afford to be seen giving in to threats. Current U.S. military policy is therefore not just illegal and unconstitutional but a recipe for endless war and a potential threat to people everywhere.
American power has endured one military calamity after another for 60 years, from Korea to Afghanistan, but it has survived until now because of the strength and size of the U.S. economy, not because its aggressive use of military power has ever been successful. No slight intended to Grenada or Panama, but invading tiny nearby neo-colonies does not provide a blueprint for “full spectrum dominance” of the Earth. As its relative economic position declines and it has to find a new place in a multipolar world, the United States will find that reinvestment in a new productive peacetime economy and international cooperation will serve its interests far better than an arms race it can’t win and a debilitating state of endless war and global occupation.
But how much more war will it take to bring our leaders to their senses and how many more innocents must die on the altar of their nightmares? We must find a way to restore sanity to U.S. policy before our deluded leaders squander what is left of our nation’s wealth on an unwinnable arms race, or, even worse, make the fatal mistake of unleashing their war machine against a country that can actually fight back. Demanding the enforcement of our own laws against aggression, torture and other war crimes would be a good place to start, along with immediate and substantial cuts in all offensive weapons programs in the U.S. military budget.
Nicolas J S Davies is the author of “Blood On Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq” (Nimble Books, 2010).
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The Aga Khan School, Osh is located in the Kyrgyz Republic and was established in September 2002.
Construction of this purpose-built facility began in 2000, in the year that commemorated Osh City's 3000th year anniversary.
On October 30, 2002, the Governor of Osh Oblast, Naken Kasiev, inaugurated the School in the presence of His Highness the Aga Khan.
Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) has a long tradition of leadership in educational development. The foundations of the present system were laid by Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, under whose guidance over 200 schools were established during the first half of the 20th century, the first of them in 1905 in Zanzibar, Gwadar in Pakistan and Mundra in India. Since the creation of Aga Khan Education Service companies in the 1970s, the schools have been centrally administered and managed.
AKES currently operates more than 200 schools and several educational programmes that provide quality pre-school, primary, secondary and higher secondary education services to more than 75,000 students in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Madagascar. Schools will also be developed in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Aga Khan school in Osh, part of the Aga Khan Education Service (AKES), currently provides over 500 students with quality learning experiences in an environment which values diversity and responds creatively to the educational needs of children.
Since the first graduating class in 2007, all graduates have advanced to further education at local and international universities. This is a significant achievement of the Aga Khan School, Osh.
Since 2008, German as a second language has been integrated into the curriculum through the partnership between AKES, Kyrgyz Republic and the German Embassy in Bishkek. The German Embassy offered to provide German language subject teachers, professional development training and support for the preparation of students to pass DSD exams. The partnership with the German Embassy has given opportunities for our graduates to be admitted to German Universities and colleges, as well as employment following the completion of their undergraduate degrees in Germany.
From 2010 to 2014, AKS also organized the French Language & Culture Club as an afterschool enrichment activity with the support of the French Embassy. Trainers from the Osh State University were invited to facilitate the French language club for our students, which was quite popular. Since, 2012, the Aga Khan School, Osh has introduced an initiative to nurture a love of science, scientific research and its application among young people.
The Aga Khan School, Osh is located in the Kyrgyz Republic and was established in September 2002.
Construction of this purpose-built facility began in 2000, in the year that commemorated Osh City's 3000th year anniversary.
On October 30, 2002, the Governor of Osh Oblast, Naken Kasiev, inaugurated the School in the presence of His Highness the Aga Khan.
Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) has a long tradition of leadership in educational development. The foundations of the present system were laid by Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, under whose guidance over 200 schools were established during the first half of the 20th century, the first of them in 1905 in Zanzibar, Gwadar in Pakistan and Mundra in India. Since the creation of Aga Khan Education Service companies in the 1970s, the schools have been centrally administered and managed.
AKES currently operates more than 200 schools and several educational programmes that provide quality pre-school, primary, secondary and higher secondary education services to more than 75,000 students in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Madagascar. Schools will also be developed in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Aga Khan school in Osh, part of the Aga Khan Education Service (AKES), currently provides over 500 students with quality learning experiences in an environment which values diversity and responds creatively to the educational needs of children.
Since the first graduating class in 2007, all graduates have advanced to further education at local and international universities. This is a significant achievement of the Aga Khan School, Osh.
Since 2008, German as a second language has been integrated into the curriculum through the partnership between AKES, Kyrgyz Republic and the German Embassy in Bishkek. The German Embassy offered to provide German language subject teachers, professional development training and support for the preparation of students to pass DSD exams. The partnership with the German Embassy has given opportunities for our graduates to be admitted to German Universities and colleges, as well as employment following the completion of their undergraduate degrees in Germany.
From 2010 to 2014, AKS also organized the French Language & Culture Club as an afterschool enrichment activity with the support of the French Embassy. Trainers from the Osh State University were invited to facilitate the French language club for our students, which was quite popular. Since, 2012, the Aga Khan School, Osh has introduced an initiative to nurture a love of science, scientific research and its application among young people.
The Aga Khan School, Osh is located in the Kyrgyz Republic and was established in September 2002.
Construction of this purpose-built facility began in 2000, in the year that commemorated Osh City's 3000th year anniversary.
On October 30, 2002, the Governor of Osh Oblast, Naken Kasiev, inaugurated the School in the presence of His Highness the Aga Khan.
Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) has a long tradition of leadership in educational development. The foundations of the present system were laid by Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, under whose guidance over 200 schools were established during the first half of the 20th century, the first of them in 1905 in Zanzibar, Gwadar in Pakistan and Mundra in India. Since the creation of Aga Khan Education Service companies in the 1970s, the schools have been centrally administered and managed.
AKES currently operates more than 200 schools and several educational programmes that provide quality pre-school, primary, secondary and higher secondary education services to more than 75,000 students in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Madagascar. Schools will also be developed in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Aga Khan school in Osh, part of the Aga Khan Education Service (AKES), currently provides over 500 students with quality learning experiences in an environment which values diversity and responds creatively to the educational needs of children.
Since the first graduating class in 2007, all graduates have advanced to further education at local and international universities. This is a significant achievement of the Aga Khan School, Osh.
Since 2008, German as a second language has been integrated into the curriculum through the partnership between AKES, Kyrgyz Republic and the German Embassy in Bishkek. The German Embassy offered to provide German language subject teachers, professional development training and support for the preparation of students to pass DSD exams. The partnership with the German Embassy has given opportunities for our graduates to be admitted to German Universities and colleges, as well as employment following the completion of their undergraduate degrees in Germany.
From 2010 to 2014, AKS also organized the French Language & Culture Club as an afterschool enrichment activity with the support of the French Embassy. Trainers from the Osh State University were invited to facilitate the French language club for our students, which was quite popular. Since, 2012, the Aga Khan School, Osh has introduced an initiative to nurture a love of science, scientific research and its application among young people.
The Aga Khan School, Osh is located in the Kyrgyz Republic and was established in September 2002.
Construction of this purpose-built facility began in 2000, in the year that commemorated Osh City's 3000th year anniversary.
On October 30, 2002, the Governor of Osh Oblast, Naken Kasiev, inaugurated the School in the presence of His Highness the Aga Khan.
Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) has a long tradition of leadership in educational development. The foundations of the present system were laid by Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, under whose guidance over 200 schools were established during the first half of the 20th century, the first of them in 1905 in Zanzibar, Gwadar in Pakistan and Mundra in India. Since the creation of Aga Khan Education Service companies in the 1970s, the schools have been centrally administered and managed.
AKES currently operates more than 200 schools and several educational programmes that provide quality pre-school, primary, secondary and higher secondary education services to more than 75,000 students in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Madagascar. Schools will also be developed in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Aga Khan school in Osh, part of the Aga Khan Education Service (AKES), currently provides over 500 students with quality learning experiences in an environment which values diversity and responds creatively to the educational needs of children.
Since the first graduating class in 2007, all graduates have advanced to further education at local and international universities. This is a significant achievement of the Aga Khan School, Osh.
Since 2008, German as a second language has been integrated into the curriculum through the partnership between AKES, Kyrgyz Republic and the German Embassy in Bishkek. The German Embassy offered to provide German language subject teachers, professional development training and support for the preparation of students to pass DSD exams. The partnership with the German Embassy has given opportunities for our graduates to be admitted to German Universities and colleges, as well as employment following the completion of their undergraduate degrees in Germany.
From 2010 to 2014, AKS also organized the French Language & Culture Club as an afterschool enrichment activity with the support of the French Embassy. Trainers from the Osh State University were invited to facilitate the French language club for our students, which was quite popular. Since, 2012, the Aga Khan School, Osh has introduced an initiative to nurture a love of science, scientific research and its application among young people.