China's role in counter-piracy operations
Masters thesis — Naval Postgraduate School, 2015. Full text: https://archive.org/details/chinasroleincoun1094545923
Arguments
China's role in counter-piracy operations
It names the mechanism of naval expansion through ostensibly benign missions — counter-piracy as the cover story under which a blue-water navy gets built, exercised, and normalized.
China's counter-piracy deployments in the Gulf of Aden and Southeast Asia were never just about pirates — they were a stepping-stone for a much larger maritime strategy. Comparing the two regions, the thesis finds some truth in all three explanations (meeting rivals' challenges and establishing geopolitical position; safeguarding economic interests; cooperating as a good global citizen) — and the deployments left China with a better-trained, more capable, more versatile navy, expanded economic reach, and tactics learned through cooperation with other navies.
Why it matters
It names the mechanism of naval expansion through ostensibly benign missions — counter-piracy as the cover story under which a blue-water navy gets built, exercised, and normalized.
Use when: A mission's stated purpose and its strategic function can both be true at once — ask what the deployment builds, not just what it fights.