One of the primary missions of NATO's Allied Command has been to safeguard the freedom of the seas and economic lifelines. During the Cold War that mission was limited to NATO's Atlantic Ocean area of responsibility and was performed exclusively by the Alliance's combined naval and air assets. In the complex post-Cold War world, those parameters no longer make much sense. This book discusses how the new global and interdependent economic security environment has fundamentally changed the way we view security, and each other as potential partners. It aims to re-examine views on the changing definition of security, the role of multinational maritime forces in promoting global economic and political stability and obstacles to future co-operation - political, cultural, budgetary and technological - associated with forming "coalitions of the willing".
The book begins with a treatment of some global themes affecting the use of seapower into the 21st century, such as new meanings of maritime security, the changing nature of the high seas, global trade routes and the importance of shipping, the United States and multilateral naval co-operation in the post-Cold War world and technology in an emerging era of "small wars". Seven maritime regions around the globe are examined in the Asia-Pacific, the Euro-Atlantic and the Americas. Within the regions, key issues are explored, such as: who are the key players; what are the challenges to regional maritime security; how will economic and trade factors impact on regional security; in what way will the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea affect regional maritime security; what are the regional naval trends; and what are the factors most likely to affect naval co-operation between the regional navies outside naval powers? The book concludes with some thoughts on the growing utility of navies as instruments of foreign policy as we approach the next century.