Securing Neptune's Treasures: Explaining Aircraft Carrier Acquisitions in the 21st Century

Abstract

Aircraft carriers are expensive, potentially irrelevant, and detrimental to foreign relations. Despite their liabilities and potential obsolescence, aircraft carrier capabilities are still being sought by some states today. Such a peculiar phenomenon cannot be satisfactorily explained by the existing literature. This paper sheds new light on the argument of strategic imperatives to account for aircraft carrier acquisitions today, by arguing that states seeking to acquire aircraft carrier capabilities today are driven by the issue of energy security. Specifically, energy-vulnerable states with energy-rich disputed maritime territories have the strategic imperative to acquire powerful naval capabilities, particularly aircraft carriers, to safeguard energy resources in these territories from foreign encroachment. Process-tracing tests were employed to examine the cases of China, Turkey, and Australia in their decision whether to acquire aircraft carrier capabilities. Empirical evidence found in all three cases supports the argument that states seeking to address their energy security vulnerability by exploiting energy-rich disputed maritime territories would acquire aircraft carriers to secure energy resources in these territories and deter encroachment from other claimant states.