The Future of the Royal Navy Rests on Restoring British National Strategy.
Warships IFR Magazine Article June 2024.
In the June 2024 edition of Warships International Fleet Review, (on sale in e-version and print in the UK & abroad 17 May 2024) I argue that the future of the Royal Navy rests not on a technocratic arguments which tie the naval service’s existence to one particular threat or theatre but returning British strategy back to one maritime led, where national strategic experience over centuries guides defence policy.
The editor remarks:
In his commentary Dr James Smith tells how the mid-1960s saw the discarding of a maritime-led national defence strategy that had served Britain well for centuries. He suggests political leaders today must be made that land-centric defence is an anomaly for the United Kingdom.
In an era where some navalists present the case of increase naval presence and investment because it’s apparently now ‘a maritime century’ appears to sound like sea power and naval force is optional, not least to islands. That the sea is important and then not important is bizarre. In fact it demonstrates a land-centric way in which to think about the sea, when the sea has arguably been no more or less important depending on the underlying culture and geographic nationality that views it. This way of thought suggests views built on quiant views of sea battles, something rare, where the sea and attempts to control it are far more than that. Rather that ‘seablindness’ has increased and decreased depending on the times and context. For example, continents will use the sea to their advantage to achieve whatever their objectives are of the moment, which are normally economic such as by controlling the flow of trade on the seas surfaces or the digital pathways that run along the seafloor.
In this article, I argue that defence strategy and policy is not that difficult when you harness the wisdom of experience of the past. Confidence can be found in the success it achieved to keep nations safe, particularly Britain’s national strategy with maritime at its core that drove the development of a bespoke Royal Navy and its relationship with the other military services. I go a step further and argue that Britain’s naval service is unlikely to improve its presence and strength without national understanding of maritime strategy. The methods, approaches and counsel of recent decades to limit its issues and improve its circumstance, (or decline as some put it) is simply not working.
The full article is available in print and e-print. The publishers website is:
https://warshipsifr.com/
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