The (Ex) Washington Realist

China has doubled its submarine patrols in the past year, as Colin Clark notes at DODBuzz. But does that mean an increase in threat?

On the face of it, having more Chinese subs deployed far from home, or having Russian ships appear in places like the Panama Canal, seems to indicate a threat. And it is easy to raise hackles because we Americans don't like to have others intruding on our sense of what constitutes our collective "mare nostrum". But we should also avoid overreacting as well.

"Monitor, but don’t overreact" was my advice on how to cope with Russian naval deployments in Latin America. Same principle applies here.

NOTE: a poster to DODBuzz adds another observation about what we gain from increased Chinese missions: "The more they go to sea, the more info we get from them."