The link above will take you to a paper from the National Bureau of Asian Research (Seattle, Washington) written by Mr. James P. Nolan, a US Air Force officer assigned to U.S. Pacific Air Forces (who recently completed an MA at Georgetown University).
It’s a depressing
read as it highlights, despite significant attempts recently to up the tempo, how attempts by the US to foster closer ties with the PLA over the last 20-years have mostly been in vain.
Mr. Nolan has had the benefit of candid access to over two dozen retired three and four starred top military personnel and concludes, despite all the handshakes and photo ops, most of the effort to establish a better dialogue between US and PLA forces has been wasted.
Perhaps this isn’t news? Where the paper provides insight though is to why this should be so?
It seems the cultural, operational and political obstacles are too great. The US believes in transparency as a deterrent, the PLA prefers secrecy. The US has a clear command structure, the PLA often doesn’t have officers of equivilent rank. US commanders have a high degree of autonomy in times of crisis, the PLA must always consult with Beijing. The US believes it’s a stabilizing force in the region, the PLA believe they’re being ‘contained’; and so it goes on.
This is of course especially troubling as China’s military capability increases and they have a commitment to more hardware bobbing up and down in the region’s waters (we know two additional aircraft carriers are now under construction with possibly two more to come after that).
Mr. Nolan throws us a couple of bones, Younger officers in the PLA seem more approachable and not one of the former US top-brass he spoke with thought the policy of dialogue and exchange should be suspended. It’s a worrying thought though that the regions’ two superpowers can’t find some more durable method of establishing a discussion about partnership or shared interests?
Happy Sunday?