A Cooperative Strategy For 21st Century Seapower - Development of The New Maritime Strategy

Development of The New Maritime Strategy

The new maritime strategy included many voices during its development. Input was sought from individuals and organizations such as the United States Department of Defense, the Joint Staff, Unified Combatant Commands, business and academia and other U.S. interagency partners.

During development of the new strategy, military planners sought to address the changing 21st century world and anticipate key uncertainties such as what the United States' grand military strategy and foreign policy will be in the next few decades. Planners considered a range of maritime strategy options: primacy, cooperative security, selective engagement and offshore balance. These paradigms commonly are used by military planners to measure the quality of strategic components against hypothetical challenges. A series of war games conducted by the Naval War College helped determine which options were the best to focus upon.

From six hypothetical paradigms, planners drafted five possible maritime strategies, which were later whittled down to three. With three strategies in hand, teams of senior leaders and military planners from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard traveled to locations around the United States to present the strategy options to American citizens as part of a program called the “Conversation with the Country” to elicit their feedback and input on potential strategies.

The Conversation with the Country program is discussed in the preface of the new strategy:

Our citizens were deeply 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. This message, coupled with rigorous academic research, analysis and debate, led to a comprehensive strategy designed to meet the expectations and needs of the American people.

The sea services hosted "Conversations with the Country" in the following cities during the development of the maritime strategy:

1. Phoenix – January 24, 2007
2. Atlanta – February 9, 2007
3. Seattle – March 9, 2007
4. San Francisco – March 12, 2007
5. Chicago – April 9, 2007
6. New York – April 16, 2007

Feedback from the participants in the first round of the Conversations with the Country program helped shape the final maritime strategy, which was unveiled October 17, 2007. Another round of Conversations began following the launch of the new maritime strategy that brought senior officers from the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard to more U.S. cities, where they presented the new strategy to business and civic leaders and discussed future roles of the three sea services in protecting the homeland and working with global partners to prevent war. American cities visited since the new strategy was unveiled were:

1. Miami – November 15, 2007
2. Houston – January 24, 2008
3. Portland – February 21. 2008
4. Denver – March 27, 2008
5. Los Angeles – April 17, 2008

In addition to the city symposia, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard leaders met with local universities and faculty in a program called “Campus Conversations.” Sea service leadership felt it was important to present the strategy to future leaders and listen to feedback. Campus Conversations took place at the following universities:

1. University of Miami – November 16, 2007
2. Rice University – January 23, 2008
3. Oregon State University – February 20, 2008
4. Denver University – March 26, 2008
5. University of Southern California – April 15, 2008