Abstract
As the United States maritime strategy was developed and articulated in the 1980s, some critics and commentators argued that it was not in fact a military strategy but a programmatic document to justify the 600-ship navy. Moreover, it was asserted, to the degree that the strategy was intended to govern the actual employment of naval forces, it was inconsistent both with nationally approved concepts of operations and war plans and with Alliance commitments.1 Although these charges were not without substance, they failed to grasp the significance of the maritime strategy in shaping national security perspectives and fleet operations.2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See, for instance, R. Komer, Maritime Strategy or Coalition Defense (Cambridge, Mass., 1984)
J. Beatty, ‘In Harm’s Way’, The Atlantic Monthly (May 1987) pp. 37–53
J. M. Collins, U.S.-Soviet Military Balance, 1980–1985 (Washington, 1985), especially chapters 9, 11, 12, 16
William W. Kaufmann, A Thoroughly Efficient Navy (Washington, DC, 1987)
John J. Mearsheimer, ‘A Strategic Misstep: The Maritime Strategy and Deterrence in Europe’, International Security (Fall 1986) pp. 3–57.
For authoritative statements on the maritime strategy, see The Maritime Strategy Supplement to the US Naval Institute Proceedings (January 1986) and
Admiral C. A. H. Trost, ‘Looking Beyond the Maritime Strategy’, US Naval Institute Proceedings (January 1987) pp. 13–16.
For a recent comprehensive and sympathetic study, see N. Friedman, The Maritime Strategy of the U.S. Navy: Concepts and Operations (London, 1987).
See C. S. Gray, Maritime Strategy, Geopolitics, and the Defense of the West (New York, 1986).
See, for instance, J. Mearsheimer, Conventional Deterrence (Ithaca and London, 1983).
J. Hattendorf, ‘The Evolution of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Strategy, 1977–1986’, Naval War College Review (Summer 1988).
J. Mearsheimer, Conventional Deterrence and B. Posen, ‘Measuring the European Conventional Balance: Coping with Complexity in Threat Assessment’, International Security (Winter 1984/5) pp. 47–88.
For a critique of this view, see E. A. Cohen, ‘Toward Better Net Assessment: Rethinking the Conventional Balance in Europe’, International Security (Summer 1988).
For an examination of the notion of maritime theatres, see Captain Dennis Blair, USN, ‘The Significance of Maritime Theaters’, Naval War College Review (Summer 1988).
For varying views on this subject, see N. Polmar, ‘The Soviet Navy: Nuclear War at Sea’, US Naval Institute Proceedings (July 1986) pp. 111–13
Captain L. Brooks, USN, ‘The Nuclear Maritime Strategy’, US Naval Institute Proceedings (April 1987) pp. 33–9
Ronald O’Rourke, Nuclear Escalation, Strategic Anti-Submarine Warfare, and the Navy’s Forward Maritime Strategy, Congressional Research Service (Washington, DC, 27 February 1987)
B. A. Posen, ‘Inadvertent Nuclear War?: Escalation and NATO’s Northern Fleet’, International Security (Fall 1982) pp. 28–54.
For an in-depth examination of campaigns in this theatre, see R. S. Wood and J. P. Hanley, Jr, ‘The Maritime Role in the North Atlantic’, Naval War College Review (November–December 1985) pp. 5–18 and
Vice Admiral H. C. Mustin, ‘The Role of the Navy and the Marines in the Norwegian Sea’, Naval War College Review (March–April 1986) pp. 2–6.
Commander S. V. MacKay, RN, ‘An Allied Reaction’, US Naval Institute, Proceedings (April 1987) pp. 82–9
Lt. Gen. T. Huitfeldt, RNA, NATO’s Northern Security (London, 1976) and
‘The Threat from the North — Defense of Scandinavia’, in NATO’s Sixteen Nations (October 1986) pp. 26–32
R. S. Jordan, ‘The Maritime Strategy and the Atlantic Alliance’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies (September 1987) pp. 45–54.
For a more detailed examination of the US industrial base and the role of Japan, see R. S. Wood, ‘Conventional Deterrence and the American Industrial Base: Security Challenges for the Nineteen-Nineties’, in Business in the Contemporary World (H. Sawyer, ed.) (Washington, 1988).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1989 John B. Hattendorf and Robert S. Jordan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wood, R.S. (1989). Fleet Renewal and Maritime Strategy in the 1980s. In: Hattendorf, J.B., Jordan, R.S. (eds) Maritime Strategy and the Balance of Power. St Antony's. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09392-2_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09392-2_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-09394-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-09392-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)