Twenty-First Century Seapower: Cooperation and Conflict at Sea

This book offers an assessment of the naval policies of the emerging naval powers (China, India, Japan and Russia) in relation to those of the US and other NATO countries, the established naval powers. A multinational collaborative study, the volume features scholars and practitioners from China, India, Japan, Europe, and the US, whose various perspectives contribute to an analysis of the prospects for conflict and cooperation in twenty-first century maritime affairs. The first section addresses the historical sources of great-power interest in developing naval power for international maritime stability, including the role of security interests, domestic politics and nationalism in naval expansionism. The second section considers the motivations for expanded naval power on the part of China, India, Japan and Russia. It thereby offers a comprehensive assessment of the national and domestic interests and international conflicts driving naval expansionism, the implications of this for bilateral and multilateral naval conflict, and the multiple political and policy challenges to maintaining stability at sea into the twenty-first century. The third section addresses the naval policies of the established naval powers, the United States and the NATO countries, including their maritime interests, naval security policies, and interest in participating in maritime confidence-building measures with emerging naval powers and their support for global maritime security and humanitarian operations. This section also addresses China's interest in participating with the United States and NATO in maritime confidence building measures. The concluding section addresses the emerging complexity of international maritime security politics and the emerging great-power policy agenda for managing and mitigating rivalry among rising naval powers and established naval powers. Given the importance of China's emerging naval power, it primarily focuses on China's interest in managing great power maritime rivalries. This book will be of much interest to students of naval power, Asian security and politics, strategic studies, security studies and IR in general.