THE MARITIME STRATEGY: CAN THE NAVY LEARN FROM THE PAST FOR AN EFFECTIVE MARITIME STRATEGY FOR THE FUTURE? A STUDY OF THE NAVY'S 1980S STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This thesis addresses how the Navy implemented and institutionalized The Maritime Strategy in the 1980s. This issue encompasses several more specific questions, namely: how did naval strategists convince the public that naval power could be relevant in a European land power battle against the Soviet Union? Who were the leaders who made the strategy stick? How was the articulated strategy able to last through multiple Chiefs of Naval Operations? And how does a service innovate and communicate a new strategy? Today, with the growing threat of China in the Western Pacific, this thesis argues that the Navy can relook at institutional processes it executed well in the 1980s and reestablish them. The thesis concludes with implications and recommendations on how the Navy can rejuvenate its strategy-making apparatus to better align the service for a twenty-first century naval buildup.