The U.S. Navy isn’t just for fighting overseas or protecting the homeland. It’s also a basic tool of force projection, diplomacy, and protecting and regulating international trade. But today’s Navy is too small to meet the demands placed on it. As a result, traditional Navy tasks, such as enforcing sanctions, are far down the priority list. But this capability gap could be filled if we had the boldness to bring back privateers.

During the long response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the delusion of the peaceful rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the U.S. Navy was allowed to atrophy. One tangible consequence: Today, America reportedly has no aircraft carriers dedicated to deterring an increasingly bellicose China — they’re all either in the Middle East, headed to the Middle East, or in various stages of training or repair.

Navies aren’t cheap. Modern ships take a long time to build — at least in the West; the PRC seems to be building dozens of warships quite quickly — and the U.S. defense industrial base needs billions to even begin to ramp up production. So our Navy will be too small for at least a decade.

Economic warfare has become a central component of international relations, though overused and ineffective unless assiduously enforced. The U.S. and its allies sanctioned Russia’s oil exports after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. To get around those sanctions, Russia operates a ghost fleet of oil tankers. These aging tankers sail without traditional insurance and with obscured ownership.

In February, the U.S. blacklisted 14 Russian tankers operated by Sovcomflot, a........

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