ABSTRACT
Navies are a window into the states they serve and the strategic environment in which they operate. Together the state and the strategic environment endow navies with the assets, the roles and the budgetary resources with which to perform those roles. But this is a two-way street because navies have an impact on states and the strategic environment, too. If they did not have such an impact, after all, there would not be much point in having them, given their expense and the technological challenge they often present. For all these reasons, navies both illuminate and help shape the present and the future.
