News, Articles and Comment

Ed. Britain’s maritime rise and fall holds urgent lessons for a United States losing ground to China at sea and in the shipyard. Originally published in the USNI’s Proceedings, August 2026. A 15 minute read.

Ed. The vast population of this ‘sceptred isle’ is ‘sea blind’ or, if you prefer, ‘maritime illiterate’. We should acknowledge this as the steady state and the only thing that could change one’s appreciation would be total war.

Ed. Originally published in July 2000 [88/3, pg. 204], this far-sighted article took aim at the inherent risk of ‘peace dividend’ logic in the increasingly volatile post-Cold War world, in which missile defence and nuclear proliferation were certain to become strategic concerns. A 15 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a book examining the US Navy’s operations in the Persian Gulf in response to the Tanker War in the late 1980s – a rather timely subject.

Ed. For Bastille Day, the author considers the past and future of the relationship between the Marine Nationale and the Royal Navy, a vital pillar in the European defence architecture. With a foreword by the First Sea Lord. A 20 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers a new biography of Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan.

Ed. By the time you read this in the hardcopy, the NATO Summit in Ankara will have taken place. However, this article by the Naval Review’s Chairman gives a clear indication, and a warning, of the general direction in which the United States wishes to steer the Alliance. A 15 minute read.

BRE. The latest book review is now available. It considers the latest volume in the Britannia Naval Histories of World War Two series, looking at the opening months of the war against Japan in Southeast Asia in 1941-2.

Ed. As military escalation increasingly takes centre stage, the author asks if Treasury intransigence has shifted the Defence goalposts. A 10 minute read.