Review article
On Naval Power
Milan Vego
; Milan Vego, Ph.D is R.K. Turner Professor of Operational Art, Joint Military Operations Department, at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, USA.
Abstract
Naval power played an extremely important and often vital role in the lives of many maritime nations. This is not going to change in the future. Its influence is felt both in time of peace and in time of war. Naval power is one of the key factors in deterring a strong opponent from going to war. In case of war, naval power is a prerequisite for successful conduct of operations on land. And the final outcome of a war is invariably on land; it is there where the humans live. Naval power also plays a critical role across the spectrum of operations short of war. The range of threats in the maritime domain is broad. The conventional threats in peacetime include claims of the riparian states in regard to the boundaries of the economic exclusion zone (EEZ) and activities there, the extent of the territorial waters and the rights of innocent passage, and illicit fishing.
Navies and coast guards can be employed in routine activities in peacetime, operations short of war, low-intensity conflict, and high-intensity conventional war. Today and for the immediate future, naval forces will be predominantly employed in carrying out multiple and diverse missions in what are arbitrarily called “operations short of war.”
However, a navy, no matter how strong, cannot carry out all the missions alone but needs to proceed in combination with other elements of naval power, such as a coast guard.
Naval power will continue to play a critical and perhaps vital role in protecting and preserving a nation’s interests at sea. This will especially be the case for countries
such as the United States, Great Britain, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, and others whose prosperity and economic wellbeing depend on the free and uninterrupted
use of the sea. Naval power is undoubtedly a powerful tool in support of foreign policy, military or theater strategy, and various peace operations. It is an integral
part of homeland security. In concert with other sources of the country’s military and nonmilitary power, naval power has a large role in deterring the outbreak of large-
scale hostilities. Finally, in the case of a regional or global conflict, forces on land cannot ultimately succeed without secure use of the sea. Obtaining, maintaining, and
exercising control of the oceans are objectives that cannot be accomplished without a strong and effective naval power.
Keywords
naval power; operations short of war; homeland security; foreign policy; support of foreign policy; combating maritime terrorism; combating piracy; counter-insurgency; coercive naval diplomacy; crisis prevention; crisis management; peace operations; irregular warfare; high-intensity conventional war; sea control; obtaining sea control; maintaining sea control; exercising sea control; sea denial; disputing sea control; basing/deployment control; major naval operations; naval tactical actions
Hrčak ID:
183557
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2017.
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