Maritime Britain in the 21st Century

320 pages

Andrew Livsey

Maritime Britain, produced by the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre, is, according to the First Sea Lord’s foreword, intended to “catalyse a renewed national conversation about Britain and the sea”. The result is 14 chapters from both well-known authors such as Rob Johnson, Matthew Heaslip and Andrew Lambert, as well as those less well known in the UK including the head of the US Coast Guard Admiral Fagan. They cover strategy, sea power culture, communities, industry and defence, in doing so explaining the vulnerability of our undersea cables, arguing for the introduction of UK maritime prefectures bringing together the many government agencies, putting the ‘blue economy’ in context and much else. Many fascinating points are made, the editing is astutely handled, and the pictures and diagrams are well chosen.

Instead of summarising each chapter, I will focus on the issue at the heart of the book, the UK’s national policy and culture as they relate to the sea, and the issue of ‘sea blindness’ and its partial converse ‘ocean literacy’. This perspective explains the book’s wide range, for a multiplicity of reasons have been suggested for the current low profile of maritime affairs in the national debate, including the move of major ports out of our coastal cities, that we now largely go abroad by aircraft, that Liddell-Hart explained the maritime approach simplistically in his books on the indirect approach, ‘jointery’ in the Ministry of Defence which the Army dominates due to their numbers, the associated end of the Admiralty civil service and more.

Though there is no magic wand to wave, this book is the best attempt to tackle the issue in recent memory. It is entirely appropriate that it focuses on today’s issues rather than giving a potted history and then saying ‘QED’, for the latter approach leaves the reader wondering if what used to be the case holds true today. It also works that ecology is discussed alongside economics, and geopolitics beside equality.

What more can be done? Andrew Lambert is surely right in his chapter to point to the importance of institutions and that a maritime identity must, in part, be “consciously constructed”. But I wonder if we could examine in more detail what that might look like for the future, and how to get there. Similarly, the underlying point made by the book, that maritime Britain has many facets, is spot on, but I wonder which parts of that have a greater place in the public consciousness and can be exploited, and where less so. As part of that I am not sure that it helps to think of sea blindness as a binary yes/no issue, or even a sliding scale, for there will be peaks and troughs in different aspects, which might be revealed by more research. There is then the challenge of how to marry the complexity of our relationship with the sea with the clarity of narrative needed to sell it.

So I give this book a firm recommendation. There may be more to say, but I challenge any reader with an interest in maritime affairs to engage without learning something, and having further thoughts sparked. And besides the involvement of the First Sea Lord, we should celebrate this output, among many, from the reformed Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre.