Pakistan Navy: Today and Beyond

Traditionally, seas are utilized as lanes of communication, trade and as vast reservoirs of living and non-living resources. For centuries, the question of controlling them has always been an issue among major powers. Later, in order to explore and expand commercial intercourse with the East, the European states proposed 'freedom of the seas' which later became a fundamental principle of international law. With rapid economic growth, changing geopolitics and technological advancement, the strategic and economic interests of major powers grew towards the seas. Strong naval forces were raised in order to control the seas, and states started to expand their jurisdictions and influence over the seas. The extensive use of the sea as the cheapest and easiest means of mass transportation contributed to the internationalization of world trade, commerce and industry and linked the entire world. Today, around 90 per cent of the world's trade is carried out through the sea lanes. Most significantly, vast resources of oil, gas, minerals and fish have become crucial to the economic success of littoral states. These resources are likely to have a profound impact on the formation of power blocs, and may well shape the destiny of the nations in the 21st century, because the 21st century is going to be a 'century of seas. The Indian Ocean is the third largest body of water on Earth, and a birth place of maritime civilizations. According to Alfred Thayer Mahan, 'whoever controls the Indian Ocean dominates Asia.