Below the Surface: The Implications of Asia’s Submarine Arms Race

Below the Surface: The Implications of Asia’s Submarine Arms Race

The sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan by a North Korean submarine in March 2010 has already been recognized as a human tragedy and a significant escalation by Pyongyang in its multi-decade confrontation with Seoul. But in the years ahead, the Cheonan incident may come to be remembered more as the inaugural event in a new era of subsurface naval competition and confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region. Asia’s rising powers are investing in submarine capabilities at unprecedented levels, and the nature of this investment is fundamentally changing the region’s subsurface environment.

While this trend is certainly part of a broader regional investment in naval power writ large, the subsurface aspects of these investments are particularly significant, due to the unique attributes and capabilities of submarines. Whereas surface ships can be used both for traditional and nontraditional purposes -- such as peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and counterpiracy operations -- the cost and attributes of submarines make them suited for missions of particular sensitivity: destroying the maritime power of another state, supporting special operations, laying sea mines and covertly collecting intelligence near an adversary’s waters.

Having evolved from a Cold War subsurface environment defined by American and Soviet nuclear submarines attempting to track one another as part of a multidecade game of nuclear cat-and-mouse, the subsurface environment emerging in the 21st century is becoming increasingly congested, conventional and contested. The implications of this new environment for America’s subsurface community are profound and should drive a re-evaluation of America’s subsurface strategy for the century ahead.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review