The USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752), shown here transiting the Singapore Strait alongside the Indonesian vessel KN Tan Jun Datu.
If given a budget boost, Coast Guard ships can play a vital role in the Indo-Pacific. The USCGC Stratton (WMSL-752), shown here transiting the Singapore Strait alongside the Indonesian vessel KN Tan Jun Datu, participated in a professional exchange with the Indonesian Coast Guard.
U.S. Coast Guard (Levi Read)

White Ships for the Gray Zone

The U.S. Coast Guard can play a role in great power competition in the Indo-Pacific region, but it needs the funding to do so.
By Captain Walker Mills, U.S. Marine Corps
February 2020
Proceedings
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Some say this is “The Era of the Coast Guards” for Asian nations.1 Amid conversations about the return to great power competition, gray zone aggression, and fait accompli actions, however, the U.S. Coast Guard has been left out. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, its statutory missions include law enforcement and facilitating maritime traffic, but it also is prepared to assist in the national defense should it be called back to the Department of Defense. This dual-hat nature makes the Coast Guard a valuable force in competition below the threshold of armed conflict. It needs to be closer to the center of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific region to allow the United States to compete with China symmetrically and to complement existing Navy and Marine Corps strategies.2

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1. Lyle J. Morris, “The Era of the Coast Guards in the Asia-Pacific Is Upon Us,” RAND Blog, 8 March 2017.

2. Shawn Lansing, “A White Hull Approach to Taming the Dragon: Using the Coast Guard to Counter China,” War on the Rocks, 22 February 2018.

3. Andrew S. Erickson, “Numbers Matter: China’s Three ‘Navies’ Each Have the World’s Most Ships,” The National Interest, 26 February 2018.

4. James E. Fanell and Kerry K. Gershaneck, “White Warships and Little Blue Men: The Looming ‘Short, Sharp War’ in the East China Sea over the Senkakus,” Marine Corps University Journal 8, no. 2 (Fall 2017): 70–76. “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2019,” report to Congress, Office of the Secretary of Defense (2019), 71.

5. Jim Gomez, “Manila Protests ‘Swarming’ Chinese Boats Near Island,” Navy Times, 1 April 2018.

6. Mike Yeo, “Testing the Waters: China’s Maritime Militia Challenges Foreign Forces at Sea,” Defense News, 31 May 2019).

7. Dimitry Filipoff, “Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson Discuss China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations,” Center for International Maritime Security, 11 March 2019.

8. ADM Karl L. Schultz, USCG, Coast Guard Strategic Plan 2018–2022, U.S. Coast Guard (November 2018), 4.

9. GEN James Mattis, USMC (Ret.), National Defense Strategy, Department of Defense (2018), 4.

10. Idrees Ali, “U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Ships Pass through Strategic Taiwan Strait,” Reuters, 24 March 2019.

11. John Grady, “Pacific Island Nations Want More U.S. Engagement,” USNI News, 15 May 2019.

12. Robbin Laird, “Trump, Kelley and the Coast Guard: Exclusive Interview with Zukunft,” Rolio Golez, 2 January 2017.

13. A. Dennis Clift, “Harpoon Missiles with a Coast Guard Stripe,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 177, no. 8 (August 2018).

14. Fanell and Gershaneck, “White Warships and Little Blue Men.”

15. Aaron Picozzi and Lincoln Davidson, “Can the U.S. Coast Guard Take on the South China Sea?” War on the Rocks, 20 June 2016.

16. Kyle Rempfer, “Is the DoD Running Up a Tab? Coast Guard Told to Counter China, But Cash Flow Checks Ambition,” Defense News, 7 May 2019.

17. Ben Werner, “New Budget Forces Tough Funding Choices for Coast Guard,” USNI News, 27 March 2019.

18. “Coast Guard Cutter Procurement: Background and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, 22 May 2019, 16.

19. Jeff Cummings, et al., “Charting a New Course for the Navy-Marine Corps-Coast Guard Team,” War on the Rocks, 8 May 2019.

20. Patrick M. Shanahan, Department of Defense Indo-Pacific Strategy Report: Preparedness, Partnerships and Promoting a Networked Region, Department of Defense, 1 June 2019.

Captain Walker Mills, U.S. Marine Corps

Captain Mills is a Marine infantry officer currently serving as an exchange officer at the Colombian Naval Academy in Cartagena, Colombia. He has previously published commentary with the Marine Corps Gazette, Proceedings, the Center for International Maritime Security, and West Point’s Modern War Institute. 

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