Preface

In 1998, the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University was asked to conduct a major study of the effects of globalization on America’s national security. The results of the study were published as The Global Century: Globalization and National Security, a two-volume book and associated summary report, both of which have received acclaim. Over 50 experts from a wide range of fields contributed to the effort. Sponsored by the Department of the Navy, The Global Century contained a section addressing the future of military and naval power in a globalizing world; however, the majority of the study concentrated on the causes of globalization and the ensuing political, economic, cultural, and societal effects.

Following in the wake of the original project, the volume you now hold takes the study to a deeper, more specific level of analysis. Globalization and Maritime Power focuses on the direct impact of globalization on naval forces and maritime aspects of commerce and international relations. It seeks to translate the general knowledge that we have learned about the phenomenon of globalization into the language of strategy and defense policy. It is both deductive and inductive in its approach—using general knowledge of globalization to deduce its impact on the maritime world, and using inductive reasoning in applying those maritime impacts to the overall fabric of defense planning. Its intent is to provide our national security leaders with analyses that can be directly applied to some of the problems and issues that we will face in the future security environment.

Many of the ideas presented in this book were discussed and debated in a series of colloquia held at the National Defense University and were part of a dialogue with other analytical organizations, principally the Center for Naval Analyses and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Particular effort was made to elicit contributions from a broad range of experts with diverse sets of experiences and perspectives. The institutional affiliations of individual authors vary from the Department of the Navy to the Joint Staff to intelligence agencies to our sister war colleges to civilian universities. Of course, the views presented herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of any of these agencies.

Although the focal points of Globalization and Maritime Power are naval and maritime, its spirit is very joint. It approaches its assessment of maritime power as a part of our overall joint military capabilities. Moreover, its treatment of such effects of globalization as terrorism and transnational threats contains lessons of value for all involved in national security decisionmaking, including agencies outside the Department of Defense.