The U.S. Navy and the Rise of Great Power Competition: Looking Beyond the Western Pacific

This volume describes how technological and geo-political trends are rapidly transforming maritime affairs.

A mix of original and previously published material, this volume describes how the 21st-century great power competition is changing the face of naval operations in general, and U.S. Navy operations in the Western Pacific in particular. The rise of an assertive China and its new anti-access and area-denial capabilities threaten the aircraft carrier-based maritime dominance of the U.S. Navy. Military and political trends in the Western Pacific and beyond suggest that the world is encountering a pivotal moment when existing weapons, tactics, and operations might be rendered obsolete by techno-strategic change. This volume considers these developments from three perspectives by describing: (1) the techno-strategic setting; (2) the institutional constraints that impede the ability of the U.S. Navy to respond to these changes; and (3) a new approach to naval force planning and strategy to cope with these developments. The volume culminates in a discussion of sophisticated strategies and operational concepts that position the U.S. Navy and its maritime allies and partners to prevail in today’s techno-strategic churn.

This book will be of much interest to students of naval policy, strategic studies, Asia-Pacific politics, and International Relations.

James J. Wirtz is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, USA. He is co-author of War, Peace and International Relations 3rd edition (2024) and co-editor of Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies, 6th edition (2023).

Captain Jeffrey E. Kline, USN (ret.) is a Professor of Practice at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, USA. In 2019, he was awarded the J. Steinhardt Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Military Operations Research.

James A. Russell is Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, USA. He is co-editor of Maritime Strategy and Naval Innovation (2021) and co-editor of The New Age of Naval Power in the Indo-Pacific (2023).