A Cooperative Strategy 

for 21st Century Seapower 

october 2007
90% of the world’s 

commerce travels by sea; 

the vast majority

of the world’s population

lives within

a few hundred miles

of the oceans; 

nearly three quarters

of the planet 

is covered by water.

seapower protects

the american way of life
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 1 

A Cooperative Strategy 

for 21st Century 

Seapower represents an 

historical first.

Never before have the maritime forces of the United States—the Navy, 

Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—come together to create a unified 

maritime strategy. This strategy stresses an approach that integrates 

seapower with other elements of national power, as well as those of our 

friends and allies. It describes how seapower will be applied around 

the world to protect our way of life, as we join with other like-minded 

nations to protect and sustain the global, inter-connected system through 

which we prosper. Our commitment to protecting the homeland and 

winning our Nation’s wars is matched by a corresponding commitment to 

preventing war.

Our citizens were involved in development of this strategy through a 

series of public forums known as the “Conversations with the Country.” 

Three themes dominated these discussions: our people want us to remain 

strong; they want us to protect them and our homeland, and they want us 

to work with partners around the world to prevent war. These themes, 

coupled with rigorous academic research, analysis and debate, led to a 

comprehensive strategy designed to meet the expectations and needs of 

the American people.

A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower binds our services more 

closely together than they have ever been before to advance the prosperity 

and security of our Nation. The demands of an uncertain world and the 

enduring interests of the American people require nothing less.

James T. Conway

General, U.S. Marine Corps

Commandant of the Marine Corps

Gary Roughead 

Admiral, U.S. Navy

Chief of Naval Operations

Thad W. Allen 

Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard

Commandant of the Coast Guard
2

Introduction

The security, prosperity, and vital interests of the United States are 

increasingly coupled to those of other nations. Our Nation’s interests are best 

served by fostering a peaceful global system comprised of interdependent 

networks of trade, finance, information, law, people and governance. 

We prosper because of this system of exchange among nations, yet 

recognize it is vulnerable to a range of disruptions that can produce 

cascading and harmful effects far from their sources. Major power war, 

regional conflict, terrorism, lawlessness and natural disasters—all have the 

potential to threaten U.S. national security and world prosperity.

The oceans connect the nations of the world, even those countries that 

are landlocked. Because the maritime domain—the world’s oceans, seas, 

bays, estuaries, islands, coastal areas, littorals, and the airspace above 

them—supports 90% of the world’s trade, it carries the lifeblood of a 

global system that links every country on earth. Covering three-quarters of 

the planet, the oceans make neighbors of people around the world. They 

enable us to help friends in need and to confront and defeat aggression far 

from our shores. 

Today, the United States and its partners find themselves competing 

for global influence in an era in which they are unlikely to be fully at 

war or fully at peace. Our challenge is to apply seapower in a manner 

that protects U.S. vital interests even as it promotes greater collective 

security, stability, and trust. While defending our homeland and defeating 

adversaries in war remain the indisputable ends of seapower, it must be 

applied more broadly if it is to serve the national interest.

We believe that preventing wars is as important as winning wars. There 

is a tension, however, between the requirements for continued peacetime 

engagement and maintaining proficiency in the critical skills necessary 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 3 

to fighting and winning in combat. Maritime forces must contribute to 

winning wars decisively while enhancing our ability to prevent war, win 

the long struggle against terrorist networks, positively influence events, 

and ease the impact of disasters. 

As it has always been, these critical tasks will be carried out by our 

people—the key to success in any military strategy. Accordingly, we will 

provide our people—our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen—with 

the training, education and tools necessary to promote peace and prevail 

in conflict.

Guided by the objectives articulated in the National Security Strategy, 

National Defense Strategy, National Military Strategy and the National 

Strategy for Maritime Security, the United States Navy, Marine Corps, 

and Coast Guard will act across the full 

range of military operations to secure 

the United States from direct attack; 

secure strategic access and retain global 

freedom of action; strengthen existing 

and emerging alliances and partnerships 

and establish favorable security 

conditions. 

Additionally, maritime forces will be 

employed to build confidence and 

trust among nations through collective 

security efforts that focus on common 

threats and mutual interests in an 

open, multi-polar world. To do so 

will require an unprecedented level of 

integration among our maritime forces and enhanced cooperation with 

the other instruments of national power, as well as the capabilities 

of our international partners. Seapower will be a unifying force for 

building a better tomorrow.

Challenges of a New Era 

The world economy is tightly interconnected. Over the past four decades, 

total sea borne trade has more than quadrupled: 90% of world trade 

and two-thirds of its petroleum are transported by sea. The sea-lanes 

and supporting shore infrastructure are the lifelines of the modern global 

economy, visible and vulnerable symbols of the modern distribution system 

Because the maritime 

domain—the world’s oceans, 

seas, bays, estuaries, islands, 

coastal areas, littorals, 

and the airspace above 

them—supports 90% of the 

world’s trade, it carries 

the lifeblood of a 

global system that links 

every country on earth. 
4

that relies on free transit through increasingly urbanized littoral regions.

Expansion of the global system has increased the prosperity of many 

nations. Yet their continued growth may create increasing competition 

for resources and capital with other economic powers, transnational 

corporations and international organizations. Heightened popular 

expectations and increased competition for resources, coupled with 

scarcity, may encourage nations to exert wider claims of sovereignty over 

greater expanses of ocean, waterways, and natural resources—potentially 

resulting in conflict.

Technology is rapidly expanding marine activities such as energy 

development, resource extraction, and other commercial activity in and 

under the oceans. Climate change is gradually opening up the waters 

of the Arctic, not only to new resource development, but also to new 

shipping routes that may reshape the global transport system. While these 

developments offer opportunities for growth, they are potential sources of 

competition and conflict for access and natural resources. 

Globalization is also shaping human migration patterns, health, 

education, culture, and the conduct of conflict. Conflicts are increasingly 

characterized by a hybrid blend of traditional and irregular tactics, decentralized planning and execution, and 

non-state actors using both simple and 

sophisticated technologies in innovative 

ways. Weak or corrupt governments, 

growing dissatisfaction among the 

disenfranchised, religious extremism, 

ethnic nationalism, and changing 

demographics—often spurred on by 

the uneven and sometimes unwelcome 

advances of globalization—exacerbate 

tensions and are contributors to conflict. 

Concurrently, a rising number of 

transnational actors and rogue states, 

emboldened and enabled with unprecedented access to the global stage, 

can cause systemic disruptions in an effort to increase their power and 

influence. Their actions, often designed to purposely incite conflict 

between other parties, will complicate attempts to defuse and allay 

regional conflict. 

Proliferation of weapons technology and information has increased 

the capacity of nation-states and transnational actors to challenge 

United States seapower 

will be globally postured 

to secure our 

homeland and 

citizens from 

direct attack and 

to advance our interests 

around the world. 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 5 

maritime access, evade accountability for attacks, and manipulate public 

perception. Asymmetric use of technology will pose a range of threats 

to the United States and its partners. Even more worrisome, the appetite 

for nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is growing among 

nations and non-state antagonists. At the same time, attacks on legal, 

financial, and cyber systems can be equally, if not more, disruptive than 

kinetic weapons. 

The vast majority of the world’s population lives within a few hundred 

miles of the oceans. Social instability in increasingly crowded cities, 

many of which exist in already unstable parts of the world, has the 

potential to create significant disruptions. The effects of climate change 

may also amplify human suffering through catastrophic storms, loss of 

arable lands, and coastal flooding, could lead to loss of life, involuntary 

migration, social instability, and regional crises. 

Mass communications will highlight the drama of human suffering, and 

disadvantaged populations will be ever more painfully aware and less 

tolerant of their conditions. Extremist ideologies will become increasingly 

attractive to those in despair and bereft of opportunity. Criminal elements 

will also exploit this social instability.

These conditions combine to create an uncertain future and cause 

us to think anew about how we view seapower. No one nation has 

the resources required to provide safety and security throughout the 

entire maritime domain. Increasingly, governments, non-governmental 

organizations, international organizations, and the private sector will 

form partnerships of common interest to counter these emerging threats.
6

Maritime Strategic Concept

This strategy reaffirms the use of seapower to influence actions and 

activities at sea and ashore. The expeditionary character and versatility of 

maritime forces provide the U.S. the asymmetric advantage of enlarging 

or contracting its military footprint in areas where access is denied or 

limited. Permanent or prolonged basing of our military forces overseas 

often has unintended economic, social or political repercussions. The sea 

is a vast maneuver space, where the presence of maritime forces can be 

adjusted as conditions dictate to enable flexible approaches to escalation, 

de-escalation and deterrence of conflicts. 

The speed, flexibility, agility and scalability of maritime forces provide 

joint or combined force commanders a range of options for responding to 

crises. Additionally, integrated maritime operations, either within formal 

alliance structures (such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or 

more informal arrangements (such as the Global Maritime Partnership 

initiative), send powerful messages to would-be aggressors that we will 

act with others to ensure collective security and prosperity.

United States seapower will be globally postured to secure our homeland 

and citizens from direct attack and to advance our interests around the 

world. As our security and prosperity are inextricably linked with those 

of others, U.S. maritime forces will be deployed to protect and sustain the 

peaceful global system comprised of interdependent networks of trade, 

finance, information, law, people and governance. 

We will employ the global reach, persistent presence, and operational 

flexibility inherent in U.S. seapower to accomplish six key tasks, or 

strategic imperatives. Where tensions are high or where we wish to 

demonstrate to our friends and allies our commitment to security 

and stability, U.S. maritime forces will be characterized by regionally 

concentrated, forward-deployed task forces with the combat power to 

limit regional conflict, deter major power war, and should deterrence 

fail, win our Nation’s wars as part of a joint or combined campaign. In 

addition, persistent, mission-tailored maritime forces will be globally 

distributed in order to contribute to homeland defense-in-depth, 

foster and sustain cooperative relationships with an expanding set of 

international partners, and prevent or mitigate disruptions and crises. 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 7 

Regionally Concentrated, Credible Combat Power

Credible combat power will be continuously postured in the Western 

Pacific and the Arabian Gulf/Indian Ocean to protect our vital 

interests, assure our friends and allies of our continuing commitment 

to regional security, and deter and dissuade potential adversaries and 

peer competitors. This combat power can be selectively and rapidly 

repositioned to meet contingencies that may arise elsewhere. These forces 

will be sized and postured to fulfill the following strategic imperatives:

Limit regional conflict with forward deployed, decisive maritime 

power. Today regional conflict has ramifications far beyond the area 

of conflict. Humanitarian crises, violence spreading across borders, 

pandemics, and the interruption of vital resources are all possible when 

regional crises erupt. While this strategy advocates a wide dispersal of 

networked maritime forces, we cannot be everywhere, and we cannot 

act to mitigate all regional conflict. 

Where conflict threatens the global system and our national interests, 

maritime forces will be ready to respond alongside other elements of 

national and multi-national power, to give political leaders a range of 

options for deterrence, escalation and de-escalation. Maritime forces 

that are persistently present and combat-ready provide the Nation’s 

primary forcible entry option in an era of declining access, even as they 

provide the means for this Nation to respond quickly to other crises. 

Whether over the horizon or powerfully arrayed in plain sight, maritime 

forces can deter the ambitions of regional aggressors, assure friends and 

allies, gain and maintain access, and protect our citizens while working 

to sustain the global order. 

Critical to this notion is the maintenance of a powerful fleet—ships, 

aircraft, Marine forces, and shore-based fleet activities—capable of 

selectively controlling the seas, projecting power ashore, and protecting 

friendly forces and civilian populations from attack.
8

Deter major power war. No other disruption is as potentially disastrous 

to global stability as war among major powers. Maintenance and 

extension of this Nation’s comparative seapower advantage is a key 

component of deterring major power war. While war with another great 

power strikes many as improbable, the near-certainty of its ruinous 

effects demands that it be actively deterred using all elements of national 

power. The expeditionary character of maritime forces—our lethality, 

global reach, speed, endurance, ability to overcome barriers to access, 

and operational agility—provide the joint commander with a range 

of deterrent options. We will pursue an approach to deterrence that 

includes a credible and scalable ability to retaliate against aggressors 

conventionally, unconventionally, and with nuclear forces. 

Win our Nation’s wars. In times of war, our ability to impose local sea 

control, overcome challenges to access, force entry, and project and 

sustain power ashore, makes our maritime forces an indispensable 

element of the joint or combined force. This expeditionary advantage 

must be maintained because it provides joint and combined force 

commanders with freedom of maneuver. Reinforced by a robust sealift 

capability that can concentrate and sustain forces, sea control and power 

projection enable extended campaigns ashore. 

Globally Distributed, Mission-Tailored Maritime Forces

The Sea Services will establish a persistent global presence using 

distributed forces that are organized by mission and comprised of 

integrated Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard capabilities. This global 

distribution must extend beyond traditional deployment areas and reflect 

missions ranging from humanitarian operations to an increased emphasis 

on counter-terrorism and irregular warfare. Our maritime forces will be 

tailored to meet the unique and evolving requirements particular to each 

geographic region, often in conjunction with special operations forces 

and other interagency partners. In particular, this strategy recognizes the 

rising importance and need for increased 

peacetime activities in Africa and the 

Western Hemisphere. 

Contribute to homeland defense in depth. 

Maritime forces will defend the homeland 

by identifying and neutralizing threats 

as far from our shores as possible. From 

fostering critical relationships overseas, 

to screening ships bound for our ports, 

or rapidly responding to any threats 

Although our forces 

can surge when necessary to 

respond to crises, 

trust and 

cooperation cannot 

be surged. 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 9 

approaching our coastline, our homeland defense effort will integrate 

across the maritime services, the joint force, the interagency community, 

our international partners and the private sector to provide the highest level 

of security possible. When directed, maritime forces will promptly support 

civil authorities in the event of an attack or natural disaster on our shores. 

Foster and sustain cooperative relationships with more international 

partners. Expanded cooperative relationships with other nations will 

contribute to the security and stability of the maritime domain for the 

benefit of all. Although our forces can surge when necessary to respond 

to crises, trust and cooperation cannot be surged. They must be built over 

time so that the strategic interests of the participants are continuously 

considered while mutual understanding and respect are promoted. 

A key to fostering such relationships is development of sufficient 

cultural, historical, and linguistic expertise among our Sailors, Marines 

and Coast Guardsmen to nurture effective interaction with diverse 

international partners. Building and reinvigorating these relationships 

through Theater Security Cooperation requires an increased focus on 

capacity-building, humanitarian assistance, regional frameworks for 

improving maritime governance, and cooperation in enforcing the rule 

of law in the maritime domain. 

Additionally, the Sea Services must become adept at forging international 

partnerships in coordination with the other U.S. services and government 

departments. To this end, the Global Maritime Partnerships initiative 

seeks a cooperative approach to maritime security, promoting the rule 

of law by countering piracy, terrorism, weapons proliferation, drug 

trafficking, and other illicit activities. 

Prevent or contain local disruptions before they impact the global system. 

Maritime forces will work with others to ensure an adequate level of 
10

security and awareness in the maritime domain. In doing so, transnational 

threats—terrorists and extremists; proliferators of weapons of mass 

destruction; pirates; traffickers in persons, drugs, and conventional 

weapons; and other criminals—will be constrained. 

By being there, forward deployed and engaged in mutually beneficial 

relationships with regional and global partners, maritime forces will 

promote frameworks that enhance security. When natural or manmade 

disasters strike, our maritime forces can provide humanitarian assistance 

and relief, joining with interagency and non-governmental partners. By 

participating routinely and predictably in cooperative activities, maritime 

forces will be postured to support other joint or combined forces to 

mitigate and localize disruptions. 

Implementing the Strategy

To successfully implement this strategy, the Sea Services must collectively 

expand the core capabilities of U.S. seapower to achieve a blend of 

peacetime engagement and major combat operations capabilities. 

Expanded Core Capabilities

Although the Sea Services conduct many missions, the following six 

capabilities comprise the core of U.S. maritime power and reflect an 

increase in emphasis on those activities that prevent war and build 

partnerships.

Forward Presence. Maritime forces will be forward deployed, especially 

in an era of diverse threats to the homeland. Operating forward enables 

familiarity with the environment, as well as the personalities and behavior 

patterns of regional actors. Mindful of the sovereignty of other nations, 

this influence and understanding contributes to effective responses 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 11 

in the event of crisis. Should peacetime operations transition to war, 

maritime forces will have already developed the environmental and 

operational understanding and experience to quickly engage in combat 

operations. Forward presence also allows us to combat terrorism as 

far from our shores as possible. Where and when applicable, forwarddeployed maritime forces will isolate, capture, or destroy terrorists, their 

infrastructure, resources and sanctuaries, preferably in conjunction with 

coalition partners.

Deterrence. Preventing war is preferable to fighting wars. Deterring 

aggression must be viewed in global, regional, and transnational terms 

via conventional, unconventional, and nuclear means. Effective Theater 

Security Cooperation activities are a form of extended deterrence, 

creating security and removing conditions for conflict. Maritime ballistic 

missile defense will enhance deterrence 

by providing an umbrella of protection 

to forward-deployed forces and friends 

and allies, while contributing to the 

larger architecture planned for defense 

of the United States. Our advantage in 

space—upon which much of our ability 

to operate in a networked, dispersed 

fashion depends—must be protected 

and extended. We will use forward 

based and forward deployed forces, 

space-based assets, sea-based strategic 

deterrence and other initiatives to deter 

those who wish us harm.

Sea Control. The ability to operate freely at sea is one of the most 

important enablers of joint and interagency operations, and sea control 

requires capabilities in all aspects of the maritime domain, including 

space and cyberspace. There are many challenges to our ability to exercise 

sea control, perhaps none as significant as the growing number of 

nations operating submarines, both advanced diesel-electric and nuclear 

propelled. We will continue to hone the tactics, training and technologies 

needed to neutralize this threat. We will not permit conditions under 

which our maritime forces would be impeded from freedom of 

maneuver and freedom of access, nor will we permit an adversary to 

disrupt the global supply chain by attempting to block vital sea-lines 

of communication and commerce. We will be able to impose local sea 

control wherever necessary, ideally in concert with friends and allies, but 

by ourselves if we must. 

As a declaratory 

strategy, this document 

challenges the 

sea services to 

evolve an expanded 

range of integrated 

capabilities

to achieve enduring national 

strategic objectives. 
12

Power Projection. Our ability to overcome challenges to access and to 

project and sustain power ashore is the basis of our combat credibility. 

Our advantages will be sustained through properly sized forces, 

innovative technologies, understanding of adversary capabilities, 

adaptive joint planning processes and the proficiency and ingenuity of 

our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen. We will maintain a robust 

strategic sealift capability to rapidly concentrate and sustain forces, and 

to enable joint and/or combined campaigns. This capability relies on 

the maintenance of a strong U.S. commercial maritime transportation 

industry and its critical intermodal assets.

Maritime Security. The creation and maintenance of security at sea is 

essential to mitigating threats short of war, including piracy, terrorism, 

weapons proliferation, drug trafficking, and other illicit activities. 

Countering these irregular and transnational threats protects our 

homeland, enhances global stability, and secures freedom of navigation 

for the benefit of all nations. Our maritime forces enforce domestic 

and international law at sea through established protocols such as the 

Maritime Operational Threat Response Plan (MOTR). We also join 

navies and coast guards around the world to police the global commons 

and suppress common threats.

Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster 

Response. Building on relationships 

forged in times of calm, we will 

continue to mitigate human suffering 

as the vanguard of interagency and 

multinational efforts, both in a 

deliberate, proactive fashion and in 

response to crises. Human suffering 

moves us to act, and the expeditionary 

character of maritime forces uniquely 

positions them to provide assistance. 

Our ability to conduct rapid and 

sustained non-combatant evacuation 

operations is critical to relieving the plight of our citizens and others 

when their safety is in jeopardy.

Implementation Priorities 

Implementation of this strategy will require that the Sea Services 

demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and unity of effort in evolving to meet 

the enduring and emerging challenges and opportunities ahead. Specific 

initiatives in support of this strategy must be vetted and tested over 

At all echelons of 

command, we must 

enhance our ability to 

conduct integrated 

planning, execution,

and assessment. 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 13

time through experimentation, wargaming, and continued operational 

experience, with periodic oversight and unified guidance provided by the 

senior leaders of the Sea Services. While many initiatives must come to 

fruition to enable this strategy, three areas will receive priority attention: 

Improve Integration and Interoperability. The combatant commanders’ 

increased demand for mission-tailored force packages requires a more 

integrated approach to how maritime forces are employed. 

Marines will continue to be employed as air-ground task forces operating 

from amphibious ships to conduct a variety of missions, such as power 

projection, but they will also be employed as detachments aboard a 

wider variety of ships and cutters for maritime security missions. Sailors, 

Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, teamed in various combinations of 

security forces, mobile training teams, construction battalions, health 

services, law enforcement, and civil affairs units to conduct security 

cooperation and humanitarian assistance missions, illustrate adaptive 

force packaging. 

Homeland defense is the most obvious example of the requirement for 

greater integration. It is not sufficient to speak of homeland defense 

in terms of splitting the responsibilities and authorities between the 

Navy and the Coast Guard along some undefined geographic boundary. 

Rather, the Sea Services must—and will—work as one wherever they 

operate in order to defend the United States. Consistent with the 

National Fleet Policy, Coast Guard forces must be able to operate as 

part of a joint task force thousands of miles from our shores, and naval 

forces must be able to respond to operational tasking close to home 

when necessary to secure our Nation and support civil authorities. 

Integration and interoperability are key to success in these activities, 

particularly where diverse forces of varying capability and mission 

must work together seamlessly in support of defense, security, and 

humanitarian operations.
14

Expanded cooperation with the maritime forces of other nations requires 

more interoperability with multinational partners possessing varying 

levels of technology. The Global Maritime Partnership initiative will serve 

as a catalyst for increased international interoperability in support of 

cooperative maritime security. 

Achieving the requisite level of integration and interoperability will 

demand a high degree of coordination among service headquarters staffs 

to fulfill their responsibilities of providing, training, and equipping 

forces. Furthermore, Navy and Marine Corps component commanders 

and Coast Guard functional commanders will play a central role 

in determining how maritime forces are organized, deployed, and 

employed. This role involves identification of combatant commander 

requirements and articulation of how their respective service capabilities 

can be integrated in innovative ways to meet those requirements. 

Close coordination among, if not outright integration of, maritime 

components may be required to do this effectively. At all echelons of 

command, we must enhance our ability to conduct integrated planning, 

execution, and assessment. 

Enhance Awareness. To be effective, there must be a significantly 

increased commitment to advance maritime domain awareness (MDA) 

and expand intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability 

and capacity. New partnerships with the world’s maritime commercial 

interests and the maritime forces of participating nations will reduce 

the dangerous anonymity of sea borne transport of people and cargoes. 

Great strides have already been taken in that direction, and the National 

Strategy for Maritime Security has mandated an even higher level of 

interagency cooperation in pursuit of effective MDA. Maritime forces 

will contribute to enhance information sharing, underpinning and 

energizing our capability to neutralize threats to our Nation as far from 

our shores as possible. 

Critical to realizing the benefits of increased awareness is our ability 

to protect information from compromise through robust information 
a cooporative strategy for a 21st century seapower 15

assurance measures. Such measures will increase international partner 

confidence that information provided will be shared only with those 

entities for which it is intended.

Adversaries are unlikely to attempt conventional force-on-force conflict 

and, to the extent that maritime forces could be openly challenged, 

their plans will almost certainly rely on asymmetric attack and surprise, 

achieved through stealth, deception, or ambiguity. Our ISR capabilities 

must include innovative ways to penetrate the designs of adversaries, 

and discern their capabilities and vulnerabilities while supporting the 

full range of military operations. We must remove the possibility of an 

adversary gaining the initiative over forward-deployed forces and ensure 

we provide decision makers with the information they need to deter 

aggression and consider escalatory measures in advance of such gambits. 

Prepare Our People. Given the 

distributed nature of the forces 

executing this strategy, we must 

properly prepare Sailors, Marines, and 

Coast Guardsmen for the challenges 

and opportunities ahead. We are 

creating a dispersed force under 

decentralized authority in a world of 

rapid information exchange. Maritime 

forces will normally operate in a 

less concentrated manner than they 

do today, and junior leaders will be entrusted with a higher level of 

responsibility and authority for carrying out important aspects of 

strategically important missions. Junior personnel will be required to 

interact with a far greater variety of U.S. and multinational partners 

and indigenous populations than their predecessors. Professional 

development and unit training must be refined accordingly. Operations 

as an integrated team require improved mutual understanding of 

respective service or agency capabilities and cultures, which can be 

achieved through expanded interagency teaming of students and 

instructors throughout training, education, and staff assignments. 

Similarly, if we are to successfully partner with the international 

community, we must improve regional and cultural expertise through 

expanded training, education, and exchange initiatives. 

Significantly, this strategy requires new ways of thinking—about both 

empowering individual commanders and understanding the net effects 

of dispersed operations. Such operations require a broadly shared 

responsibility among: the on-scene commander responsible for ensuring 

As it has always been, 

these critical tasks 

will be carried out 

by our people—

the key to success in any 

military strategy.
16

actions are in accordance with the commander’s intent; the higher 

commander responsible for providing intent and guidance to subordinates; 

the parent service of dispersed forces responsible for ensuring that units 

are trained, equipped, and culturally prepared for the missions they 

will undertake; and, finally, the regional commanders responsible for 

determining appropriate force levels and readiness postures. 

Conclusion

This strategy is derived from a thorough assessment of the Nation’s 

security requirements. It does not presume conflict but instead 

acknowledges the historical fact that peace does not preserve itself. 

Looking across the wide maritime domain, it calls for a broad portfolio 

of core capabilities to support our vital interests, realized by well-trained, 

highly motivated and ably-led people. 

The strategy focuses on opportunities—not threats; on optimism—not 

fear; and on confidence—not doubt. It recognizes the challenges imposed 

by the uncertain conditions in a time of rapid change and makes the case 

for the necessity of U.S. seapower in the 21st Century.

As a declaratory strategy, this document challenges the Sea Services to 

evolve an expanded range of integrated capabilities to achieve enduring 

national strategic objectives. Further experimentation, operational 

experience, and analysis are necessary, as is sea service commitment to 

building upon the ideas that this document puts forward. However, the 

Sea Services cannot do this alone. The diverse elements of the greater 

maritime community must be inspired and supported as they invest to 

secure peace and prosperity across the maritime domain. 

The Sea Services commit to continuing the process of collaborative 

strategy implementation in the years ahead. United States seapower is a 

force for good, protecting this Nation’s vital interests even as it joins with 

others to promote security and prosperity across the globe. 
united states seapower

is a force for good,

protecting this nation’s

vital interests even as

it joins with others

to promote security

and prosperity

across the globe.

seapower will be 

a unifying force 

for building a 

better tomorrow. 
To learn more about the Navy, Marine Corps 

and Coast Guard , visit:

www.navy.mil

www.usmc.mil

www.uscg.mil