I doubt the current US administration’s ability to conjure up the rebirth of the US shipbuilding industry (“Why ships are the new chips”, Opinion, March 24). While the country performed heroically in building thousands of ships during the second world war, as the article acknowledged, it was quickly supplanted in peacetime: briefly by the UK, then in succession by Japan, South Korea and China.
Making shipbuilding great again would be a futile and massively costly exercise — not least as it would depend either on American steel and other home-produced equipment or imported materials subject to historically high tariffs. For now, making any American manufacturing sector great again is only possible by making goods from competitors more expensive.
If the US does pull off that considerable feat, these American-built and flagged vessels would face significant competition on the Arctic routes. The Northwest Passage runs mostly along the coastline of Arctic Canada, rather than Alaska, so it would make more sense to work with that peaceful neighbour — rather than threatening annexation.
Mapping the northwestern route would be of strategic significance, especially for military intelligence. Prospecting for rare earths, though, sounds much more far-fetched, given the complexity of securing sub-sea mining rights and the sheer cost of mining in such a harsh environment. It would make more sense to look much closer to home instead: US coal ash may contain substantial amounts of rare earths.
Investing in domestic technology, extraction and refining makes much more sense than grasping at straws, or brandishing swords, in Greenland, Ukraine or Canada.
In the 21st century, Make America Great Again should be about organic growth of US human, industrial and natural resources, rather than a collection of ill-advised, unprofitable, neocolonialist expeditions around the world.
Professor Michael Tamvakis
Professor of Commodity Economics
and Finance, Bayes Business School,
City St George’s, University of London, UK
