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This book examines the large but neglected topic of the development of maritime power from both an historical and a contemporary point of view.
Navies have never been more important than they are now, in a century becoming, as widely expected, increasingly and profoundly maritime. The growing competition between China and Russia with the United States and its allies and partners around the world is essentially sea-based. The sea is also central to the world's globalised trading system and to its environmental health. Most current crises are either sea-based or have a critical maritime element to them. What happens at sea will help shape our future. Against that background, this book uses both history and contemporary events to analyse how maritime power and naval strength has been, and is being, developed. In a reader-friendly way, it seeks to show what has worked and what has not, and to uncover the recurring patterns in maritime and naval development which explain past, present and future success - and failure. It reflects on the historical experience of all navies, but in particular it poses the question of whether China is following the same pattern of naval development illustrated by Britain at the start of the 18th century, which led to two centuries of naval dominance.
This book will be of much interest to students of maritime power, naval studies, and strategic studies, as well as to naval professionals around the world.
List of contents
1. Maritime Matters, 2. A Predisposition Towards the Maritime?, 3. Henry Maydman, Maritime Power and a Strategy of Means, 4. The Vision Thing, 5. Willing the Means: Establishing and Resourcing Strategic Priorities, 6. Going Joint: The Maritime Mix, 7. Establishing Naval Policy and Setting Strategy, 8. All of One Maritime Company: The Search for Synergy, 9. Coastguards and the Assertion of Maritime Authority, 10. Naval Power: The Administrative Angle, 11. Delivering a Navy's People, 12. Designing the Fleet, 13. Nothing is For Ever: Maintaining the Fleet, 14. A Conclusion with Chinese Characteristics
About the author
Geoffrey Till is Emeritus Professor of Maritime Studies at King’s College London and Chairman of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies. Once Dean of Academic Studies at the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College, he is author of over 300 books, chapters and articles. He now holds the Dudley W. Knox Chair for Naval History and Strategy at the US Naval War College.
Summary
This book examines the large but neglected topic of the development of maritime power from both an historical and a contemporary point of view.
