The Deep Blue Highway
By John Curtis Perry, the director of the maritime studies program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Scott Borgerson, a recent graduate and Rockford Weitz, a Ph.D. candidate there (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 02/01/07):
IN October President Bush signed the Safe Port Act, authorizing an investment of $6.7 billion to tighten security at American ports. This is a vitally important and overdue step. But it ignores another major problem in maritime commerce: the phenomenal decline of American shipping.
While it’s true that the United States Navy still dominates the world ocean — its total tonnage equals the combined tonnage of the next 17 smaller navies — American commercial shipping is but a puny remnant of its former self.… Seguir leyendo »