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I just telephoned Admiral Paul Yost in Washington to wish him a happy Coast Guard 199th birthday. Paul was in his office for a change—not in Key West to celebrate a big drug bust (as he was last week) or in Valdez to see how the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is going (as he will be next week).
Paul also spends much time on Capitol Hill, fighting the battle of the Coast Guard budget. I was lucky to catch him in his office. As it was, my call interrupted a meeting about two treaties on oil spill compensation that are now before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Bush administration is pressing for advice and consent so the United States can ratify the treaties, but there is opposition from powerful senators who don’t want treaties that preempt state pollution laws. As Commandant, Paul Yost must help fight that kind of battle, too!
At a meeting earlier today, the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) asked me to convey to Admiral Yost his thanks for helping obtain funds for the World Maritime University (WMU). This is IMO’s technical school in Malmo, Sweden, which trains maritime administrators from around the globe. In this instance, the source of funds was the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); its Governing Council had come through with enough money to keep WMU safely in the black for another year. The United States is a heavy contributor to UNDP, so an authoritative American voice can make a difference. Secretary-General C.P. Srivastava was certain that Paul Yost’s intervention was a key to success—and he was right!
I next called Captain Dana Starkweather to offer him best wishes on the 199th. Dana is Commander of Coast Guard Activities Europe, with headquarters in London, and is also the Coast Guard attache in our embassy here. He and his staff stay very busy attending to the business of the Coast Guard conglomerate in this part of the world. He is currently preparing for important negotiations with European countries that host our loran transmitting stations, but today he was preparing for an event less complex and more relaxing; a Coast Guard Day picnic at his quarters for members of his staff and their families.
IMO (pronounced eye-em-oh) has its headquarters in London, and is the only specialized agency of the United Nations located here. A meeting at IMO is the reason I am in London this week.
IMO deals with a multitude of issues related to commercial vessels. This means commercial vessels of all kinds: tankers, passenger ships, ferries, mobile offshore drilling units, fishing boats, RO-ROs, and chemical carriers, among others. IMO’s 133 member-states have two great concerns: maritime safety and prevention of pollution from ships. These are construed broadly whenever the organization decides what problems to tackle.
The U. S. Coast Guard plays a very large role at IMO on behalf of the U. S. government. Other agencies participate as well, but the Coast Guard typically prepares for and leads U. S.
well, but the Coast Guard typically prepares for and leads U- participation at technical meetings. (IMO has 45 meeting weec per year, and most meetings are indeed technical!) Agendas casionally reflect national security concerns including na ones. A recent concern was the removal of disused offshore P ^ forms. This raised questions about how close to the seabe structure should be cut off before its site can be abandoned- year at IMO, a treaty was negotiated to deal with the problem^ seagoing terrorists. This is an organization where a lot goes ’ and the Coast Guard serves manifold national purposes throufc its heavy participation. .
Many other Coast Guard activities involve foreign countn ’ and the service’s occasional identification as an instrumen foreign policy does not strain the facts. The Internationa ^ Patrol is probably the longest-standing formal commitrnen
this category, and many new ones have flourished in
recent
years: mobile training teams are sent overseas (about 30/ye ’ foreign students are brought to the United States to attend a va^ ety of Coast Guard schools (including the Academy in New ^ don); liaison officers serve in numerous foreign capitals many high-level officials of other governments regularly Coast Guard operational units to see how the service rt>nS show. Many of these activities are financed by the Navy s se rity assistance program and the State Department’s narcotics
fice. lua-
Here’s the point: the Coast Guard clearly has something vj} ^ ble to export. Unlike many American institutions, the Guard was not patterned after a European model. It is a un'-Le
American invention, formed to bring many interrelated nr functions under one institutional roof. In other countries,
ariti>lie
many
organizations exist to do the same jobs this single outfit doe^ ^ our country. Developing countries see the Coast Guard . model to emulate in building their own maritime agencies-" praise indeed! Even developed countries have shown ■_ especially after maritime disasters. But they face greater dit 1 ties in trying to change the status quo. ^
So the Coast Guard has much valuable expertise to export . of course, a great deal to offer at home in serving the nap°(er. interest. True, the Coast Guard has its problems, as well- e nally, the major problem is budgetary. And recent years ^ shown it to be a particularly virulent and persistent kind of a etary problem—not the usual type that all agencies face t ^ days. Internally, the main problem seems to lie with differcj\ ^ in perception about the character of the Coast Guard, and w of its missions should be ascendant when command decisions made in Washington.
_____________________ •_ >_ , , __ one ex<-
i its ’aiways
Whatever the problems, it is abundantly clear that this exceP
tional organization is still versatile and vigorous as it enters 200th year. Most important, the Coast Guard remains ready to meet new challenges.
And that’s a great thing for the country.
Admiral Wallace has extensive experience in international maritime affairs> ( jS both while in federal service and afterwards. Now a lawyer in private practice, the chairman of IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee.
38
Proceedings / October