Web Sitings

Secondary Sources for Naval Research
Fall/Winter, 1997-98

In the last column we examined some of the sources for primary research on naval strategy and policy available on the internet. As promised, this time around we'll be looking at secondary sources. No official government or military sites are included. While there is a veritable plethora of navy sites on the web, the amount that offer well-researched papers on strategy and policy are scant. Moreover, it would appear that serious scholarship on naval issues posted to the internet is limited to those parts of the world currently facing naval threats. The US, Canada, and the countries of the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean are all represented, but that's about it. This column, for the most part, ignores Canadian issues, since just about the only source for this is the NOAC's web site (http://www.naval.ca). We don't want to be seen as shamelessly trumpeting our own site, so we'll see how the rest of the world stacks up.

Not surprisingly, the majority of secondary sources on naval strategy and policy are American. Dr. Scott Bowden, of IRIS Independent Research has recently published "Forward Presence, Power Projection, and the Navy's Littoral Strategy: Foundations, Problems, and Prospects". He provides an interesting analysis of the US Navy's "From the Sea" strategy.

In the same vein, John Luddy's "Charting a Course for the Navy in the 21st Century," (article link no longer available - Sept. 2002) while not as recent as Bowden's (it is dated 9 March 1994), looks at the change in US Naval policy from countering the Soviet Threat on the high seas to projecting American military power from ship to shore. The paper is included on the Heritage Front's website (not the Canadian group of racists, rather the Washington-based conservative research organization).

Another conservative think tank, the CATO Institute, has also tackled the issue of US naval policy in the article "The Cold War Navy in the Post-Cold War World". It is written by Christopher A. Preble. The CATO Institute notes that it is dedicated to smaller government, so it is probably not completely surprising that the paper argues that the USN should be downsized in a post-Cold War world.

From the left of the US think tanks is the Commonwealth Institute. They have published an entire section on "Background and Commentaries on the 1997 U.S. Defense Review". It is interesting to see the US debate from a non-conservative perspective. While the documents here do not deal exclusively with naval issues, the role of the USN is regularly referred to.

As a final point on US sources, check out the Atlantic Monthly's defence section. While it is not always the most navy-relevant, it does provide some of the most entertaining defence reading on the internet. Absolutely worth looking over.

Switching over to the other side of the world, the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa has published a paper on "A Maritime Vision for South Africa in the 21st Century". Written in 1996 by Greg Mills, the Director of Studies, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), the paper looks at the factors which influence the nature of South Africa's naval commitments and its naval capacity.

Also published by the ISS are the proceedings of a conference entitled "Diplomats and Defenders: South Africa and the Utility of Naval Power". The volume is edited by Jakkie Cilliers, and was published February 1997. It is an interesting compilation of of various South African naval experts, and should prove valuable to anyone doing research in this area.

A little further north in the Indian Ocean, Rahul Roy- Chaudhury's paper on "Trends in Naval Power in South Asia and the Indian Ocean" was published in the SAPRA (Security and Political Risk Analysis India Think Tank) India Monthly Bulletin January 1996 Issue. The Bulletin was last published in early 1997, so it is unsure when any new analysis will be available. Roy-Chaudhury does a good job of summarizing the directions of naval policy in the Indian Ocean.

Further east, the Australian Member Committee of the Council for Security and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific publishes as newsletter on the web. Posted under the auspices of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies, Australian National University, the newsletter comes as one large file, but there is a lot of detail on what's happening in this part of the world.

Closer to home, there is some information about Arctic operations and their implications to the environment. "U.S. Military Activity in the Arctic in the 1990s: Is It Needed?" by Joshua Handler is not the most recent document (1992). Published by Greenpeace, Handler examines the strategic role (or lack thereof) of the arctic in the post-Cold War world, and questions whether there remains a need for military operations in the arctic when balanced off the potentially devastating possibility of a nuclear accident. You be the judge.

Peter Gizewski's "Military Activity and Environmental Security: The Case of Radioactivity in the Arctic" is published by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee. The paper examines some of the same issues as Handler above, but Gizewski provides a much less "dogmatic" approach than Greenpeace, and certainly provides more documentation, evidence and thought about this issue.

Next column: information warfare.

© Copyright NOAC 1997