Toward a New Maritime Strategy: American Naval Thinking in the Post-Cold War Era - Hardcover

Haynes, Peter D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1612518524 ISBN 13: 9781612518527

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2015

Synopsis

The book examines the evolution of American naval thinking in the post-Cold War era. It recounts the development of the U.S. Navy’s key strategic documents from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the release in 2007 of the U.S. Navy’s maritime strategy, A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower. An insightful and penetrating intellectual history, it critically analyses the Navy’s way of thinking and ideas, and recounts how they interacted with those that govern U.S. strategy to shape the course of U.S. naval strategy in the post-Cold War era.

The book explains how the Navy arrived at its current strategic outlook and why it took nearly two decades for the Navy to develop a maritime strategy in an era in which the relative saliency of such should have been more apparent to Navy leaders. The author, a Navy captain, doesn’t shy from taking to task the institution and its leaders for their narrow worldview and failure to understand the virtues and contributions of American sea power, particularly in an era of globalisation.

It describes the reasons behind the Navy’s late development of a maritime strategy during the post-Cold War era. It recounts the origins and evolution of the Navy’s distinctive way of thinking and ideas about sea power since before the Second World War, particularly how they shaped and were shaped by the Navy’s Cold War experiences.

It argues that the Navy’s way of thinking and ideas, and how they interacted those that governed U.S. strategy, bounded and channelled U.S. naval strategy away from a maritime approach as they had during the Cold War. It took an implausible series of events for one to emerge, including a losing war in Iraq—that called into question long-standing assumptions about U.S. strategy, threatened the Navy’s relevance, and brought about a systemically oriented U.S. strategic approach—and the appearance of two maritime-minded Navy leaders.

It focuses on the process by which the Navy developed its strategic documents, the process where institutional ideas are assembled, negotiated, and reshaped in light of other influences—i.e., the direction of U.S. strategy, budgetary constraints, perceived threats, and the competing interests of other domestic and institutional actors—because even though the subject is American naval thinking (and here it must be emphasized that the concept itself is somewhat metaphorical as only people can think), that is how real strategy is made.

About this title

Review:

"In this study of American naval thinking in the Cold War Peter Haynes is unafraid to make critical judgements on the makers of policy in the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to 2007 and the publication by the US Navy of 'A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Sea Power.' It is to the credit of the US Navy and the Naval Institute that such a frank commentary on recent events is allowed in the public domain. This book is of outstanding importance. Haynes argues convincingly for a real revival of thought and action for an American global maritime strategy. This will make for uncomfortable reading to many, but read it they must. It is criticism, but of a constructive and fundamentally friendly kind." --International Journal of Maritime History

"Haynes' research provides the reader with an extraordinary history of the intellectual thinking, political pressure, bureaucratic infighting, personalities and budgetary constraints that have shaped strategy making in the Department of the Navy over this time. Colin Gray is correct when he writes in his endorsement that 'it will make uncomfortable reading to many, but read it they must.' Peter Haynes has written an essential book. It is one everyone interested in strategy and the future of American power in the world needs to read and reflect upon. The US view of war, despite its limitations, has proved enormously successful. Yet nothing lasts forever. No view of war can persist unless its purpose is clear: why does the United States use and threaten force? One of the most important ways must be to support and defend the global political and economic system. It is, after all, primarily an American system. As Haynes concludes, regardless of where 'globalization may lead, ' the US Navy is the 'only institution on earth currently capable of conceiving and executing a maritime strategy.' (252) Or it is until a nation with a more compelling maritime narrative emerges to replace it."--Parameters

"For those readers, and they should include as many folks as possible in government and security circles, who have wondered about whether the Navy has a 'strategy problem' or not, a topic of much recent debate, this book will address their curiosity. It also has much to offer those with broad interest in how institutions change, see themselves, and try to reconcile their institutional identities within the context of a national strategy, or even grand strategy--especially those interested in how the United States fits into the overall picture of the global system and why it remains an essential leaders and "system manager." This book is also recommended to the officers of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), if not already on their lists--as radical and unconventional as that might sound coming from the keyboard of a former US Navy officer. Knowing one's counterparts can be as useful for advancing peace and understanding as it is in 'knowing one's enemy' for the darker purposes of war."--Naval Historical Foundation

"This thoughtful and carefully researched book is honest and absolutely relevant in summarizing and explaining the U.S. Navy's current strategic thought processes. The author is an insider but a very objective one. He tells it 'warts and all.' Much broader in approach and more worldly than many recent U.S. strategists, especially at the top level, the author is a realist. His global view is hopefully shared with some of his important colleagues who are likely to be heavily involved with the planning for any major naval war in the foreseeable future. A brilliant contribution to modern military and political thought."--Baird Maritime.com

"Haynes has written an insightful and penetrating history with many lessons identified. ...it will be of great interest to defense leaders, students and thinkers, as the relevance and parallels are clear. In his final comment Haynes states that while the US Navy alone cannot conceive and execute a maritime strategy in a changing era of globalization, it does not relieve it of the requirement to exercise strategic leadership."--Australian Naval Institute

"Few if any of these scholarly explorations have come close to touching upon the actual impetus, evolution, and bureaucratic calcification that make such pathology an almost indelible part of a service's culture and identity. Haynes' study of the Navy's Staff (Office of the Chief of Naval Operations [OPNAV]), the evolution and structuring of its various bases of power, and their ability to compete for influence alongside the other institutional bases of power within the Navy all marks the book as an original approach to understanding how military services as institutions formulate their own identity and how that identity shapes service policy and planning. Scholars interested in exploring concepts like 'strategic culture' within the framework of a specific service would do well to read and emulate Haynes's approach."--Journal of Strategic Studies

"Toward a New Maritime Strategy is a masterful look at how our Navy thinks about, and creates, strategy. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in naval and maritime affairs, or the development of military strategy more broadly, both in uniform and civilian clothes. Frankly, it should be on every officer and national security professional's reading list because, as the strategist Adm. J.C. Wylie wrote: 'Strategy is everyone's business.' Yes, even maritime strategy."--WarOntheRocks.com

"This work is not an operational history of the navy between 1989 and 2007, but readers seeking an intellectual history of navy leadership during this period will profit handsomely from this book. Haynes has provided an accurate chart of the shoals encountered by navy leadership as it navigated a course from a post-war, victorious, forward-deployed navy to a much smaller, leaner navy trying to come to grips with early twenty-first-century threats."--The Mariner's Mirror

"Books which discuss and analyse contemporary maritime strategy are few and far between, vying for an even smaller share of what is already a relatively limited market. When one does come along it tends to be worth reviewing because the publisher has taken a chance; they have considered it likely to be either commercially appealing or so important in its content and message that they feel duty bound to share it with the world. Or both. And when that happens readers should take note. If you buy just one contemporary naval book this year, make it Peter Haynes' Toward a New Maritime Strategy. It is that good."--The Naval Review

"This book is a wake-up call for many senior officers to start thinking strategically again and designing and building the ships necessary to maintain global law and order in an increasingly contested and unstable future. Peter, you have done us a great favor in beginning the long tack home to maritime thinking and reason!"--The Navy

About the Author:

Captain Peter D. Haynes of the U.S. Navy is the assistant deputy director, Strategy, Plans, and Policy (J5), of the U.S. Special Operations Command. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame, USA and then received a PhD in Security Studies and a masters’ degree in Strategic Planning from the Naval Postgraduate School. A carrier aviator, combat veteran, and former squadron commander, he has served in numerous strategy positions on various senior staffs.

About this edition

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1612518524
• ISBN 13: 9781612518527
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304