Evolution of Maritime Strategy...Is Sea Power the Answer?

Alfred Thayer Mahan is credited with convincing the United States Government that maritime power could be used to achieve strategic goals and attain major power status. Mahan's concepts have continued to shape United States maritime strategy albeit to a varying degree since they were first accepted. Maritime strategy has played a key role in the political framework of the United States as the nation evolved from a coastal to an oceanic to a trans-oceanic power. This paper provides a definition of maritime strategy and briefly analyzes modern American maritime strategies based on the concepts provided by Alfred Thayer Mahan with emphasis on the vision presented in Sea Power 21. The United States Navy enjoys a position of unrivaled maritime dominance in the post-Cold War world and the basis for developing national strategy has shifted from a potential threat to maintaining specified military capabilities. This changed focus complicates the process of defining the means requisite to a maritime strategy and opens the question does Sea Power 21 adequately rationalize the ends ways and means required for an effective maritime strategy?