Planning for War at Sea
400 Years of Great Power Competition
Evan Wilson editor Paul M Kennedy editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Naval Institute Press
Publishing:20th Mar '25
£29.99
This title is due to be published on 20th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
How have navies contemplated possible enemies? How did they learn, or fail to learn, once operations began? How does this analysis inform today’s planning for future conflict? These questions guide the noted historians and naval strategists who contributed to Planning for War at Sea. A central theme is the regular failure of navies’ best-laid plans.
Covering four centuries of naval warfare, the chapters illustrate the challenges all navies faced when considering possible enemies. Even during the Age of Sail, ships were among the most expensive and long-term national endeavors. Navies therefore planned well in advance for future wars, usually without knowing their adversaries or how they would fight them at sea. Building a capable navy requires sustained investment in naval infrastructure long before the fighting starts.
In the final chapters naval strategists expand on this historical analysis to address how effectively or ineffectively today’s three leading navies—Russia, China, and the United States—have configured themselves during the post–Cold War era in preparing for future great power conflict. This collection is an important work for strategists, scholars, and policymakers.
"A tour de force! Planning for War at Sea keenly examines lessons drawn from naval planning and execution across four centuries, analyzing the successes and failures. The contributors are world-class scholars, and we could ask for no better guides than Paul Kennedy and Evan Wilson. As the world begins a new maritime century, all serious leaders will read this book; the best will learn from it and prevail to set the global agenda for the next 100 years."—Adm John Richardson, USN (Ret.) 31st Chief of Naval Operations
"Kennedy, Wilson and their world-class contributors provide a warning from the past, examining the causes of naval strategic failure in a succession of case studies that highlight the impact of flawed pre-war assumptions, outmoded plans, and ill-suited equipment. Today, with the biggest navies belonging to continental powers, and technology evolving by the day, the potential for catastrophic failure has never been greater. Essential reading."—Prof. Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History. Kings College, London
"In Planning for War at Sea, we see the enormous value of a deep knowledge of the past for helping us ask better questions about strategy and planning for our contemporary world. Kennedy and Wilson bring together insightful chapters from some of our leading naval scholars to share the wisdom naval history has to offer today’s naval professionals."—Benjamin "BJ" Armstrong, editor of 21st Century Mahan, Revised and Expanded: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era.
This is an impressive and valuable collection of thought-provoking essays. It is timely, given the ways recent conflicts—like those in Ukraine and Afghanistan—have forced us to reassess how best to plan and prepare for war. Wilson, Kennedy, and their contributors review historical approaches to that challenge from a maritime perspective and illuminate how difficult and important it can be."—Trent Hone, author of Learning War and Mastering the Art of Command.
ISBN: 9781612517254
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 662g
400 pages
New edition