“Rebalance U.S. Coast Guard Cutters to Help Advance a ‘Free and Open’ Indo-Pacific,” is the title of a paper by Lt. Cmdr. Mike Moyseowicz for Security Nexus. This article analyzes the distribution of United States Coast Guard assets around the world and the need to reexamine the distribution to better serve a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.

Summary:
As a federal maritime law enforcement agency, the U.S. Coast Guard works to counter maritime security threats, promote a rules-based international order in the maritime domain, uphold respect for sovereignty, and ensure the freedom of the seas. With missions ranging across the vast Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Coast Guard has a critical role to play in advancing a “free and open” Indo-Pacific. Currently, however, the Service is limited in its ability to effectively operate across the Pacific because it homeports the majority of its cutters in the Atlantic. While in the midst of its largest cutter fleet recapitalization in history, the U.S. Coast Guard should rebalance its cutter assets and bring more major cutters to the Pacific to operate more effectively in the region.

 Keywords: Maritime law enforcement, homeport, Oceania, IUU fishing, maritime domain awareness

Lt. Cmdr. Moyseowicz is a military professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the DKI APCSS or the United States Government.

Security Nexus is a peer-reviewed, online journal published by the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

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