Zukunft has characterized the Coast Guard’s oldest and most specialized fleet, its river tenders, as “museum ships,” many of them 60 years old or more. Another key to meeting future demands – to serving as regulator, incident responder, and maintenance crew for the MTS – will be to make sensible choices about how to replace that fleet. Given the current budget climate, this is one of the service’s biggest unknowns.

In January 2015, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., in a speech outlining the Coast Guard’s role in the 21st century, Zukunft put it plainly: “As the Navy repositions to the Pacific,” he said, “I’m repositioning to the Western Hemisphere.”

The Coast Guard’s motto, Semper Paratus (Always Ready), implies a near-constant degree of unknowing. Though the future of the U.S. LNG and crude oil fleets is still uncertain, the Coast Guard is already preparing – in conversations with shipping companies, shipbuilders, and nongovernmental classification societies such as the American Bureau of Shipping, which establishes and maintains technical standards for the marine-related facilities. “If we’re going to see a resurgence of the U.S.-flagged fleet,” said Zukunft, “we do not want to become the speed bump that would prevent this really burgeoning growth in our shipyards and in our ports, and certainly the impact it would have on our current balance of trade.”

 

The Western Hemisphere and Transnational Crime

In recent years, the U.S. departments of State and Defense have continued to “rebalance” more attention and resources to the Asia-Pacific, as a resurgent China begins to exert its influence in the region. As an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Coast Guard is charged with addressing the more immediate threats to U.S. sovereignty and the integrity of its borders. Last summer, more than 68,000 unaccompanied children from Central America were caught crossing the nation’s southwestern border – most of them from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala – and another wave began in March 2015 as the weather improved.

As many observers – including Zukunft – have pointed out, to place a child into the care of a human trafficker in a bid to find safe haven is a clear sign of life-and-death desperation. According to a United Nations report released last year, eight of the world’s 10 highest murder rates are in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in the Caribbean and Central America – not coincidentally, in the corridors along which illegal drugs stream into the United States. A boy born in Honduras – the world’s most violent country – has a 1 in 9 chance of being murdered in his lifetime.

The illegal trafficking of drugs, people, weapons, and cash is a global criminal enterprise worth an estimated $750 billion, and the damage associated with this trade in Central America – violence, 40 percent unemployment, 50 percent poverty, and unstable or corrupt government institutions – poses a threat to America’s national security. The illegal drug trade also poses a direct threat to the lives of Americans: Every year, more die of overdose or drug-related violence than are killed in automobile accidents.

In January 2015, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., in a speech outlining the Coast Guard’s role in the 21st century, Zukunft put it plainly: “As the Navy repositions to the Pacific,” he said, “I’m repositioning to the Western Hemisphere.” The Coast Guard plays a leading role in the fight against illegal trafficking, a whole-of-government collaboration with partner nations involving the Navy and federal law enforcement agencies under the umbrella of Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATFS). In fall 2014, the Coast Guard released its “Western Hemisphere Strategy,” a document that outlines the service’s vision for how these partnerships can be leveraged most efficiently, in the immediate future, to protect the United States and support its regional partners in combating networks, securing borders, and safeguarding commerce.