Geopolitics maven Nicholas Spykman would nod knowingly at this week’s NATO naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Soviet strategists considered the Eastern Mediterranean part of the blue belt. During the Yom Kippur War of 1973, for instance, the Soviet Navy deployed a squadron to the Eastern Mediterranean that outnumbered the Sixth Fleet. The Russian Navy has played an increasingly active part in the Eastern Mediterranean, revivifying its naval base at Tartus, in Syria, and using naval assets to support combat operations in that strife-torn land. If its recent military moves and provocations comprise Moscow’s challenge, then think of countermoves such as operating two carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean Sea alongside allied forces as NATO’s riposte.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 27, 2019 08:26 UTC