Navies enforce maritime order short of war

The boarding took place in international waters; entering Japanese territorial waters could have turned an insult into a cause for war. Maritime law ultimately depends on ships capable of enforcing it, which gives navies broad peacetime roles in presence, fisheries protection, counter-smuggling, counter-drug, and deterrence missions. Tension in the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz offered modern reminders that dense legal rules did not make the sea self-policing. Although Europe was at war, Liverpool's action in the Pacific functioned as a coercive policing and deterrence operation rather than a battle. The location of the interception mattered because crossing into another state's territorial waters carried a much greater risk of escalation.