Since the end of the Cold War, China, Japan, India and Russia have begun to challenge the status quo with the acquisition of advanced naval capabilities. The emergence of rising naval powers is a cause for concern, as the potential for great power instability is exacerbated by the multiple maritime territorial disputes among new and established naval powers.
This work explores the underlying sources of maritime ambition through an analysis of various historical cases of naval expansionism. It analyses both the sources and dynamics of international naval competition, and looks at the ways in which maritime stability and the widespread benefits of international commerce and maritime resource extraction can be sustained through the twenty-first century.
This book will be of much interest to students of naval power, Asian security and politics, strategic studies, security studies and IR in general.
Peter Dutton is Associate Professor of Strategic Studies in the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, Rhode Island.
Robert S. Ross is Professor of Political Science at Boston College, Associate, John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. He is author of several books.
Øystein Tunsjø is Associate Professor in the Department of International Security Policy, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies.