To bootstrap U.S. maritime industrial base, link allies and innovators

There is now bipartisan consensus that the decline of the U.S. maritime industrial base is a national security risk. The current U.S. flagged commercial fleet falls well short of the robust sealift capacity that would be needed in wartime. The proposed solution: rapid reindustrialization of the American economy. Efforts such as the SHIPS for America Act, the new White House shipbuilding office and the April maritime executive order all aim to boost investment in American commercial and naval ship construction.

The challenge is that the words “rapid” and “reindustrialization” are an awkward fit. The U.S. is unlikely to move from effectively last place into a pole position dominating the commercial maritime sector in the span of one, two or three presidential administrations. And if the justification for such initiatives is the proximate threat China poses to Taiwan, then time is a scarce commodity. As policymakers on both sides of the aisle consider the feasibility of a wholesale resuscitation of U.S. shipbuilding, there is a nearer-term lever worth pulling: engaging more with U.S. allies in ways that link strategic maritime partners to America’s innovation economy.

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