ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how small navies can survive in an age of austerity. It concentrates on the idea of innovation, challenging existing assumptions and addressing an aspect of the experience of small navies that is rarely discussed in the existing literature. The book examines the experience of small navies through a series of case studies that explore the history, role and activity of a number of navies from East Asia, Europe and North America in order to draw out issues of enduring importance. It addresses two closely related and important questions: whether small navies are different from medium or large navies and whether small navies are in fact different from each other generically. The book describes Romania's maritime power and argues that while Romania has important security and economic interests in the Black Sea, it has struggled to develop a small professional navy.
