Description:
This book examines the evolution of US naval strategy and the role of American seapower over three decades, from the late 20th century to the early 21st century.
Review Quotes:
'This book is a most welcome addition to the library of understanding that surrounds strategy and seapower. Its academic credentials are robust and its observations and deductions, I found, most helpful.' -- Clive Johnstone, Commander, NATO Maritime Command, Northwood
'Current trends of American 'rebalancing' from Europe and the Middle East into the Asia-Pacific, with the simultaneous challenge of conventional Western military and in particular naval capabilities under pressure, could all too easily lure the strategically untrained mind to return to Halford Mackinder's heartland theory to try to grasp the fate of European security. This would deliberately omit the importance of American seapower. In fact, the relationship between American national security and the use of its Navy as a foreign policy tool and a geostrategic instrument has too often negated by academics, policy-makers, and even the military. This timely book offers a thorough investigation of the basic principles of American national security, naval strategy, the trajectory of U.S. maritime power since the 1980s. It shows how US Navy strategy and its fleet evolved, and where and when it was used in support of larger national (and in some cases international) security ends.' -- Wolfgang Peischel, Brigadier General, Austrian Armed Forces