Navy Strategy Development: Strategy in the 21st Century

Abstract

This project examines the process by which the United States Navy formulates and implements strategy. Strategy is traditionally understood as the linkage of ends, ways, and means to achieve specific objectives, while the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military Terms narrows the definition to “A prudent idea or set of ideas for employing the instruments of national power in a synchronized and integrated fashion to achieve theater, national, and/or multinational objectives.”1 OPNAV’s task, however, is to formulate an organizational strategy that enables the Navy to support higher-level policy objectives. This type of strategy ideally should be framed by a conceptual analysis of the future security environment and U.S. defense policy. For OPNAV, Navy strategy is transformative in the sense that it offers a plan to create the Navy of tomorrow out of the Navy of today.