Over the summer, the United States deployed warships to the Caribbean – ostensibly to menace drug traffickers but also as a none-too-subtle warning to Venezuela. Earlier in the year, a U.S. Navy destroyer bobbed along waters close to Iran for similar reasons. And in the Taiwan Straits and Pacific, China and the U.S. frequently show off their respective maritime military might.
Close to 200 years after first being used to assert geopolitical dominance, gunboat diplomacy is very much alive and well.
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