ABSTRACT
Current American thinking on maritime strategy has been conveniently summarised for us in a special supplement entitled ‘The Maritime Strategy’ which appeared with the January 1986 edition of the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. European reactions to the US Navy’s Maritime Strategy have ranged from warm support to downright hostility. The diversity of response partly reflects differing levels of sympathy for the general strategic aims of the United States, or more particularly of the Administration of President Reagan. The United States has certain strategic interests in Europe’s Northern Waters which derive at least as much from her own basic requirements as they do from those of her allies in Western Europe. The global perspectives of the Maritime Strategy, together with the growing interest of the United States in the Pacific Ocean, could possibly pose European navies in the Northern Flank area with a number of issues to be resolved.
