Introduction

The introduction explains the editorial choice of “multipolarity” in the title of the book by surveying the political science literature on that topic. It also draws out some of the major themes by discussing the four different perspectives adopted by the contributors: hegemonic navies in unipolar moments; hegemonic navies in emerging multipolar environments; number two navies in multipolar competitions; and smaller navies in the same situations. Navies need to understand the international environment and their place in it before they begin to plan. Yet all too often, making that determination proves to be surprisingly challenging.