핵심요약

• 미국은 이란 전쟁에 집중하며 태평양 지역에서 항공모함(USS George Washington)을 철수시켰습니다.
• 항공모함의 장기 파병으로 인해 정신 건강 및 보급 문제가 제기되고 있습니다.
• 미국의 전략적 후퇴는 중국에게 동북아시아에서 영향력을 확대할 기회를 제공합니다.
• 중국은 미국의 군사적 분산에 만족하며, 대만 문제에 대한 야심을 실현할 기회를 얻습니다.

도입

본 기사는 미국의 대외 정책 변화가 동북아시아의 지정학적 균형에 미치는 영향을 분석합니다. 미국이 중동과 이란에 대한 전쟁에 집중하면서 태평양 지역에서 항공모함을 철수시키는 행위는 단순한 군사 이동을 넘어, 동맹국들의 불안정성과 중국의 전략적 기회를 심화시키는 중요한 신호로 해석됩니다. 이는 미국이 추구하는 지역 전략과 실제 행동 사이의 괴리를 보여주며, 역내 세력 균형에 중대한 변화를 예고합니다.

본문 1: 지정학적 압박과 군사적 현실

미국이 이란에 대한 전쟁에 집중함에 따라 항공모함의 운용 한계가 시험대에 올랐다는 점이 핵심입니다. USS George Washington이 태평양에서 철수하는 상황은 미국의 군사적 자원이 특정 지역에 과도하게 집중될 때 발생하는 현실적 한계를 명확히 보여줍니다. 이는 장기간 파병된 함정에서 발생하는 정신 건강 문제와 보급 문제에 대한 우려를 증폭시키며, 군사 작전의 지속 가능성에 대한 의문을 제기합니다. 이러한 현실은 미국의 군사적 개입이 장기화될 경우, 병력의 사기와 물류 시스템 유지에 심각한 부담을 준다는 점을 시사합니다. 즉, 군사적 목표 달성뿐만 아니라 병력의 복지와 장기적인 작전 지속 능력도 고려해야 함을 의미합니다.

본문 2: 중국의 기회와 전략적 동기

미국의 태평양 철수는 중국에게 전략적 기회를 제공하는 측면이 있습니다. 베이징은 미국의 군사적 분산과 동맹국들의 불안정성에 만족하며, 이는 중국이 동북아시아에서 자신의 야심을 실현하는 데 장애물이 될 수 있다는 인식을 약화시킵니다. 중국은 미국이 태평양 지역에서 후퇴하는 것을 보며, 자신들의 목표인 대만 점령에 대한 부담이 줄어들고, 미국이 제공하는 분산된 관심사를 활용하여 전략적 입지를 강화할 수 있는 여지를 확보하게 됩니다. 이는 미국이 태평양 지역을 '가장 중요한' 지역으로 간주했던 기존의 목표와는 상반되는 결과로 나타납니다. 따라서 중국에게 있어 미국의 군사적 부재는 단순한 공백이 아니라, 전략적 목표를 달성하기 위한 새로운 기회로 작용합니다.

본문 3: 장기적인 위험과 전망

항공모함의 부재는 중국에게 군사적 우위를 확보할 수 있는 또 다른 기회를 제공합니다. 비록 미국 항공모함의 철수가 대만 침공 가능성을 직접적으로 높인다는 의미는 아니지만, 미국의 관심이 분산됨으로써 중국은 군사적 역량을 축적하고 지역 내에서 영향력을 확대할 수 있는 환경을 조성합니다. 장기적으로 볼 때, 미국의 전략적 우선순위 변화는 동북아시아의 안보 환경에 예측 불가능성을 증가시키며, 이는 역내 국가들의 안보 전략과 동맹 관계에 복잡한 변동성을 가져올 수 있습니다. 따라서 미국과 중국 간의 전략적 경쟁이 심화될수록, 태평양 지역의 군사적 공백은 잠재적인 갈등의 씨앗이 될 수 있다는 점을 주목해야 합니다.

결론

결론적으로, 미국의 대외 정책 변화는 태평양 지역의 군사적 현실과 중국의 전략적 기회를 동시에 변화시키고 있습니다. 항공모함 철수와 같은 물리적 움직임은 지정학적 긴장을 고조시키며, 이는 단순한 군사적 이동 이상의 의미를 가집니다. 투자자들은 이러한 지정학적 변동성이 장기적인 지역 안정성과 글로벌 공급망에 미치는 영향을 면밀히 관찰해야 할 것입니다. 향후 미국과 중국 간의 상호작용과 동맹국의 반응을 주시하는 것이 중요합니다.

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원문 링크: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilwFBVV95cUxNeVJEZzNHQnZ3dTZNclJ2SEFXWlc3MEhlLVBOQWVzZVJQRER2aW52NWR2dHZKOWs5aE1TOEpGX29MVXhpUHNCQS1qRzlqMlMxdXNyUGlOUjItT3VpTGdaWGNMM1M2N2VPZGxtdHRlRW1lU3l0VlpuWVp0N1htbUlNdzRqRVpWTmQwZHFPUTI5bElQNjdvRWlj0gGcAUFVX3lxTE1RWUpra3RUeHpKM0YzWjlmNUhNcmFlM2NpODVBVnZMb1FMUFZ5dEFLOU0wTmxxMk8zdThrNWVjWEZTSGhyYVdxbVRLTFBQanJrbzFCQzZJcHM3SXJCY0dXMVFWdEN5RlJNb1EzV2JFRVdYZnE5aC1LdEIwd3dHNmNjRVZaU25veThLSko1OVRoQzFHUVJoOGRuVFFlag?oc=5

US pulls last aircraft carrier in Asia as Trump focuses on Iran and Western Hemisphere - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

Trump’s war on Iran is stretching the limits of the nation’s aircraft carriers.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's war against Iran is stretching the limits of U.S. aircraft carriers and leaving the western Pacific without one of the key American warships as China shows more signs of aggression .

The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. The Lincoln has had its time at sea extended from its original May return date to support operations against Iran.

The lack of a U.S. carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere .

“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the U.S. is "doing the exact opposite" of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.

American allies in the Pacific are unsettled over the unpredictability of the Republican administration , Poling said, while Beijing “is quite happy with U.S. distraction, with the frustration of U.S. allies and partners."

Beijing sees the U.S. military presence in the region as a threat to China’s rise and an obstacle to its ambition to seize Taiwan , the self-governing island it claims as its own. But the United States has argued that the Pacific region is too important economically to lose .

No one expects China to invade Taiwan because an American aircraft carrier has left the region. But the carrier's absence gives the Chinese another opportunity to show its strength, said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner who is a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

“They’re using this as part of the narrative to demonstrate to the Philippines, to Japan, to Indonesia and others that the U.S. is not the big dog in the western Pacific anymore,” Clark said. “They would just prefer that countries in the region decide that China is the bigger power and the U.S. is not able to guarantee their security anymore.”

China conducted naval exercises this week with Indonesia and recently has shown signs of aggression toward Japan and the Philippines, two key U.S. allies that also have territorial disputes with Beijing.

China carried out military drills this month near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Both China and the Philippines have claims over the shoal. Last month, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer conducted a live-fire exercise off Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori.

Adm. Frank Bradley, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, has been trying to reassure regional allies of Washington’s commitment. He was in Manila on Thursday, telling his Filipino counterparts that U.S. special operations forces are ready to step up joint exercises to strengthen the countries' alliance. He also is expected to travel to Japan.

Evan Sankey, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute who focuses on U.S. policy toward China, said aircraft carriers provide psychological assurance to U.S. allies. The absence of carriers in the region, he said, “adds to the general sense that the U.S. is distracted by events in the Middle East.”

Trump has relied heavily on aircraft carriers to support military operations during his second term. For example, the USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment , the longest since the Vietnam War, during which it supported the U.S. fight against Iran and the capture of Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The Ford had experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep. Meanwhile, the Lincoln has spent a record uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Democratic lawmakers have been calling for investigations and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship.

Warships and their crews can only handle so much, said Robert Farley, who teaches national security and diplomacy at the University of Kentucky and often writes about aircraft carriers.

“People don’t get enough rest. It's psychologically exhausting. And R & R is part of keeping the crew healthy,” Farley said. “Sometimes it’s framed as, ‘These people haven’t had a vacation.’ But we are dealing with well-known limits on the capacity of a crew to operate at top efficiency over time. And that just declines."

Clark, of the Hudson Institute, said the squeeze on the nation's aircraft carriers stems from the lack of preparation and planning for the Iran war.

“If we were going to mobilize to do this kind of conflict, and we anticipated it might go this long, we might have done some changes to the carrier schedule to make sure more would be available,” Clark said.

Clark said the Navy has 11 aircraft carriers and typically deploys two or three at a time. But it could soon deploy four if the USS Theodore Roosevelt leaves San Diego for the Middle East, allowing the Washington to return to Pacific.

But the massive warships will need maintenance, likely causing a bottleneck at the nation's only two carrier shipyards.

“We’ll end up with a maintenance debt that needs to be paid for the next few years,” Clark said. “We’ll probably have less carrier presence than we’ve had in the previous years because carriers will be lined up to get into the shipyard.”

Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow in the Quincy Institute’s East Asia Program, questions the future need for aircraft carriers as warfare rapidly changes.

Carriers can be more easily targeted with drones and missiles, particularly by an adversary such as China, Swaine said, while smaller ships and submarines can be as effective in striking targets as the fighter jets that launch off a carrier.

Top Navy officials have indicated a desire to move away from a heavy reliance on carriers. Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, told The Associated Press in February that he wants to convince commanders to use smaller, newer ships and other assets instead of consistently turning to huge aircraft carriers.

Source: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilwFBVV95cUxNeVJEZzNHQnZ3dTZNclJ2SEFXWlc3MEhlLVBOQWVzZVJQRER2aW52NWR2dHZKOWs5aE1TOEpGX29MVXhpUHNCQS1qRzlqMlMxdXNyUGlOUjItT3VpTGdaWGNMM1M2N2VPZGxtdHRlRW1lU3l0VlpuWVp0N1htbUlNdzRqRVpWTmQwZHFPUTI5bElQNjdvRWlj0gGcAUFVX3lxTE1RWUpra3RUeHpKM0YzWjlmNUhNcmFlM2NpODVBVnZMb1FMUFZ5dEFLOU0wTmxxMk8zdThrNWVjWEZTSGhyYVdxbVRLTFBQanJrbzFCQzZJcHM3SXJCY0dXMVFWdEN5RlJNb1EzV2JFRVdYZnE5aC1LdEIwd3dHNmNjRVZaU25veThLSko1OVRoQzFHUVJoOGRuVFFlag?oc=5