ABSTRACT
This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a deeper understanding of the crafting of US Navy strategy since the final decade of the Cold War, its contextual and structural framework setting, and its application. It addresses the context in which strategy – and in particular US Navy strategy and naval power – evolves. The book explains what drove and constrained US Navy strategy and looks at selected instances where American sea power was directed in support of US defense and security policy ends – and whether that could be tied to what a given strategy proposed. It also discusses whether documents had lasting influences in the strategic mindset, the force structure, and other areas of American sea power. The book embeds naval strategy in the setting of overarching US policy and American grand strategy.
