Why the Mediterranean Sea is so damn Important

[Music] the mediterranean is one of the world's most strategic seas ringed by three continents it sits at the center point between the indian arctic and atlantic oceans interconnecting global trade routes between africa america asia and europe the mediterranean is now seeing a resurgence in conflicts and tensions over its waters the shift of america's foreign policy to the indo-pacific and china the increasing tension between greece and turkey the expansion of the dubai and ankara political influence over the middle east and north africa and the increasing interests of russia and china in the region are all determining factors in the degradation of the mediterranean security environment as we will see later in the video these factors have focused on one country libya which perhaps provides the best example in analyzing the mediterranean importance so why is this sea so important though the mediterranean plays a huge role for its littoral states economies thanks to its fisheries tourism and desalinated fresh water two main reasons scale its importance to that of a major strategic area energy reserves and trade first massive gas and oil fields have recently been discovered off the coasts of cyprus egypt israel lebanon and palestine these have been established by the united states geological survey in 879 million barrels of oil and 286.2 trillion cubic feet of gas by comparison the gulf of mexico reserves are surmised to be 3.44 billion barrels of oil and 5.7 trillion cubic feet of gas this has led to the heightening of tensions leading up to diplomatic skirmishes over the redefinition of exclusive economic zone boundaries second more than 12 percent of global trade flows through these waters and is estimated at around 1.9 trillion us dollars for the majority of cases this trade starts in asia and the middle east the world's major manufacturing and oil powers with destinations on the u.s east coast and europe in 2021 nine percent of the us total oil imports came from the middle east via the mediterranean passage the same goes for europe too which imports about 18 percent of its oil from the middle eastern and north african regions in 2020 the u.s east coast received about 36.3 percent of containers from asia one major threat hangs over this immense traffic a blockade of the mediterranean route the mediterranean sea is to europe what the gulf of mexico is to the united states and the south china sea is for china about one and a half times the size of the gulf of mexico and around one third smaller than the south china sea the common characteristic that the mediterranean sea shares with these two bodies of water are that the access points are also choke points if america's underbelly is menaced by the two straits created in cuba and china's main southern ports of hong kong and shenzhen are bottlenecked by the taiwan strait in the north and the bashi channel in the west and the indonesian straits in the east the mediterranean boasts for a far larger number of external and internal choke points the main getaways into the sea are the gibraltar strait and the suez canal through which passes all of the in and outbound sea trade internally the turkish and greek straits in the east and the messina and sicily straits in the west further limit the internal navigation in total the indo-arctic atlantic trade routes rely on four major choke points babelman deb suez sicily and gibraltar these four passages are like cogs in the world trade machine if one stops spinning the hole is blocked this is pretty much what happened in march 2021 when the container ship ever given clogged the suez canal for weeks causing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of delays for europe and america it is not only critical to keep this flow of oil and goods open but it is also essential to guarantee unencumbered navigation to their military vessels as well european countries like france and the uk still hold a permanent naval presence in their overseas territories in the indo-pacific region and temporary assignments in phonop and anti-piracy missions have recently been increased seeing the presence in the past few years of britain's new carrier strike group france's amphibious strike group and even of a german frigate the us navy also heavily relies on mediterranean choke points to connect its sixth and fifth fleet's main home ports around 35 to 45 navy ships traverse these passages as they move from their atlantic bases to be deployed in the indo-pacific region or the middle east a major historical example of the importance of these access points is presented by the refusal of the british authority to open the suez canal to tsar baltic fleet sailing against japan in 1905 after months of sailing around the treacherous african route now those ships lay in sparse on the sea floor with tsushima straight since washington paris and london all have high stakes in the region they also hold a tight watch over these strategic points as a matter of fact all four of these main choke points are less than 100 miles from these countries military bases the mediterranean is a nato sea of the 21 littoral states one-third are nato members among which france is a nuclear power and turkey has the second largest military behind the u.s [Music] non-littoral states also possess a strong footprint in the area the most influential by far is the us running military bases throughout italy spain greece turkey and israel america maintains a strong clutch over the region and this has become increasingly relevant in washington's russian containment strategy in fact moscow has been present for over a decade in the mediterranean via a single naval base in tartus syria from russia's perspective this space allows moscow to diminish nato pressure from its southern flank in the black sea by adding a deterrence capability directly in the mediterranean region another u.s strategic competitor has shown interest in the region china has also put the mediterranean high up on its strategic interests beijing's main foreign policy project the belt and road initiative aims at boosting the commerce between china and europe and state-owned companies like costco have been heavily investing in this region like in the pyreas port in greece located at the south end of the mediterranean is a country that has been a fulcrum of all these foreign influences natural resources that attract nato members a strategic gateway connecting sub-saharan countries with the mediterranean a battleground for regional clout libya is a mirror and a canvas for the power struggle happening in the mediterranean libya is a country split in half after the ousting of muammar gaddafi in 2021 with clusters focused around the main cities of tripoli in the west and to brook and benghazi in the east in tripoli resides the un brokered government called the government of national accord mainly supported by turkey qatar and italy on the other side of the serta gulf instead sits to brooke which plays host to the tobruk parliament and the libyan national army the main backers of this side are the united arab emirates uae saudi arabia egypt russia france and sudan there are three main dimensions that give us a better understanding of the conflict and of the mediterranean region's importance these are energy security libya's strategic location and immigration energy is perhaps the most important driver of this conflict libya alone holds around three percent of the world and 39 of africa's reserves these natural resources attract first and foremost the nato members of turkey france and italy turkey needs to secure its energy security to fuel its economy and 84 million citizens and most importantly to propel the expansion of its political influence in the region amid its reliance on one of its main regional competitors russia despite having downed a russian jet in 2015 ankara still imports from moscow around 17 of its oil and 45 of natural gas libya's oil could drastically help propel ankara's blue homeland doctrine of establishing its military and political superiority in the region against moscow and dubai while providing a diplomatic and economic angle against italy and france's reliance on libyan oil which in 2020 imported around 18.4 percent and 9.9 percent respectively this antagonism also extends over the gas and oil fields found in the eastern mediterranean in 2019 turkey signed an mou with libya regarding the definition of their respective eez unilaterally claiming 16 nautical mile wide corridor across the mediterranean and large swaths of these gas fields in the process this situation not only elicited the worsening of greco-turkish relations but also renewed a military interest of france and italy which led to the deployment of two frigates in the region in defense of their national oil company's assets one common factor among these countries is that they all heavily depend on russian oil france imports 8.8 percent italy 10.1 and turkey 17. this reliance partially explains russian interest in libya which accumulated with the sending of weaponry and contractors from a russian perspective control over libya allows for two main achievements first better control over gas supplies towards france italy and turkey in particular amid the 2022 russian oil ban following the ukraine invasion second in a similar fashion to syria permit an extended russian naval outpost in the mediterranean this arguments russian strategic deterrence by posing a new threat to nato and europe's southern flank and offers its navy more operational freedom partially unfettered from the turkish straits for france instead bringing libya under control boosts its influence in the fazan and sahel regions in 1987 this is where the so-called toyota war between chad and libya took place at the center of the conflict were the uranium mines in northern chad which at the time fueled both parts of france's nuclear power plants and gaddafi's dreams of a nuclear arsenal a wave of terrorist attacks on france's soil and against french company assets has made paris more active in the sahelan and sub-saharan regions in anti-terrorism operations the uae in a similar fashion to turkey is trying to expand its political influence in the region its oil economy has turned the emirates into a main regional player with the second highest military spending in the middle east after saudi arabia consequently dubai seems poised to expand its clout against opposing political movements stemming from the 2011 arab spring revolutions like the muslim brotherhood favorably viewed by qatar and turkey thus dubai aims to avoid the establishment of unfavorable powers and encourage its control over the region's weaker states like libya but also yemen and in some regards egypt libya is also essential in regulating the immigration flow from sub-saharan africa into europe it has been seen that around 70 percent of sub-saharan migrants pass through libya on their journey to europe as demonstrated by the 2015 migrant crisis migration flows can be used to threaten and manipulate european politics as shown by turkey in 2015 and libya under gaddafi these migration flows can be exploited as a negotiated card against the eu both countries obtained massive cash inflows to halt migrants with their borders as such libya can become the plug hindering this flow or conversely can become the stepping stone fostering inter-mediterranean migration if you liked this video please consider leaving a like and subscribing otherwise the thumbs down button seems to work fine too thanks for watching and see you at the next video [Music] you

Channel: Kamome

Views: 108,017

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Id: ZpK_i9ntPZc

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 08 2022