Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 05.02.2025
Gunboat diplomacy is an aggressive foreign policy that uses highly visible displays of military—usually naval—power to imply a threat of warfare as a means of forcing cooperation. The term is typically equated with the “Big Stick” ideology of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and the globe-trotting voyage of his “Great White Fleet” in 1909.
“The concept of gunboat diplomacy emerged during the late nineteenth century when the Western imperialist powers—the United States and Europe—competed to establish colonial trading empires in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Whenever conventional diplomacy failed, fleets of the larger nations’ warships would suddenly appear, maneuvering off the coasts of the smaller, uncooperative countries. In many cases, the veiled threat of these “peaceful” shows of military force was enough to bring about capitulation without bloodshed.
The “Black Ships” fleet commanded by the U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry is a classic example of this early period of gunboat diplomacy. In July 1853, Perry sailed his fleet of four solid black warships into Japan’s Tokyo Bay. Japan quickly agreed to open its ports to trade with the West for the first time in over 200 years without a navy of its own.
In 1903, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt sent a flotilla of warships to support Panamanian rebels fighting for independence from Colombia. Though the ships never fired a shot, the show of force helped Panama gain its freedom, and the United States gained the right to build and control the Panama Canal.
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine” officially made the threat of military force a tool of the United States foreign policy. Adding ten battleships and four cruisers to the U.S. Navy, Roosevelt hoped to establish the United States as the dominant power in the Caribbean and across the Pacific. “[i]
“In May 1904, a naturalized U.S. citizen, Ion Perdicaris, was captured in Morocco by a chieftain named Raisuli. Roosevelt hurriedly dispatched warships to Tangier, even though quiet diplomatic efforts were on the verge of securing the captive’s release. It was later learned that evidence that Perdicaris was a Greek citizen had been offered to Roosevelt. Still, the president wanted to avoid a loss of face that would have resulted from recalling the fleet” [ii].
“Donald Trump has vowed that the US would “take over” war-ravaged Gaza and “own it”, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in an announcement shocking even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency.
Trump, who has previously threatened Greenland and Panama and suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, added Gaza to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East” and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.
“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,” the president told a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday evening. “It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.” [iii]
Trump is advocating the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that the Gazan and the Arab states oppose, and if the U.S. acts as Trump wants, he will push for the wave of the Arab revolution.
The trade wars combined with boat ship diplomacy is opening the road for WWIII.
If humanity is to survive, imperialism must die!
For the Arab revolution!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/05/donald-trump-plan-to-take-over-gaza-strip-netanyahu-visit
[ii] https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h889.html
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/05/donald-trump-plan-to-take-over-gaza-strip-netanyahu-visit