Tells the story of the growing Chinese Navy - The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) - and its expanding capabilities, evolving roles and military implications for the USA. Divided into four thematic sections, this special collection of essays surveys and analyzes the most important aspects of China's navel modernization.

"Through colourful and lively historical illustrations as well as strategic theory, Gray shows how sea power, when integrated with land and air power, increases the combatant's opportunities and choices. With dozens of examples from the Greek and Persian wars of the fifth century B.C. through the recent war in the Gulf, Gray systematically demonstrates the ways sea power has been used, and how it might have been used, to win battles and wars. His thought-provoking commentary is certain to become essential reading for the makers of defense policy today. The Leverage of Sea Power is an important and original contribution to the science of warfare historically and in the nuclear age." --

While the overriding image of the First World War is of the bloody stalemate on the Western Front, the overall shape of the war arose out of its maritime character. It was essentially a struggle about access to worldwide resources, most clearly seen in Germany’s desperate attempts to counter the American industrial threat, which ultimately drew the United States into the war. This radical new book concentrates on the way in which each side tried to use or deny the sea to the other, and in so doing describes rapid wartime changes not only in ship and weapons technology but also in the way naval warfare was envisaged and fought. Melding strategic, technical, and tactical aspects, Friedman approaches the First World War from a fresh perspective and demonstrates how its perceived lessons dominated the way navies prepared for the Second World War.

The book is the definitive conceptual and historical introduction to the concept of anti-access strategies. Unlike current studies, it is not simply technology focused. Nor is it primarily intended as critique of the current Air-Sea Battle concept. It combines conceptual thinking with historical examples and potential scenarios in order to identify options for future defense planning.Strategies of “anti-access,” also known as “area denial” (more recently combined into the awkward acronym “A2/AD”) are presumed to be the primary threats to the employment of U.S. military forces in overseas crises. This presumption has gradually evolved into a joint concept of “operational access.” Anti-access capabilities appear to be the current military posture of the People’s Republic of China and Islamic Republic of Iran. The study of anti-access or area denial strategies for use against American power projection capabilities has strong naval roots—which have been largely ignored by the most influential commentators. In reality, denial of access was the Soviet Navy’s operational objective during the Cold War. The first use of the actual anti-access term can be traced to a series of “anti-Navy” studies by the Office of Net Assessment designed to examine the ability of the U.S. Navy to carry out its Maritime Strategy and, later, “…From the Sea” strategic vision. Sustained long-range power projection is both a unique strength of U.S. military forces and a requirement for an activist foreign policy and forward defense. In more recent years, the logic of the anti-access approach has been identified by the Department of Defense as a threat to this U.S. capability and the joint force; countering it is one of the defense priorities identified in the President’s directions issued this past January. In addition to potential regional powers, a number of think-tanks have suggested that non-state actors, such as terrorist organizations, are developing anti-access/area denial capabilities. The book’s conclusions differ from most commentary on anti-access. Rather than a technology-driven post-Cold War phenomenon, the anti-access approach has been a routine element of grand strategy used by strategically weaker powers to confront stronger powers throughout history. But they have been largely unsuccessful when confronting a stronger maritime power. Although high technology weapons capabilities enhance the threat, they also can be used to mitigate the threat. Rather than arguing against reliance on maritime forces—presumably because they are no longer survivable—the historical analysis argues that maritime capabilities are key in “breaking the great walls.”

... this is a case study of the process by which a strategy was developed and applied within the present American defense establishment ... bearing in mind the broad aspects involved in the rational development of a strategy through an understanding of national aims, technological and geographical constraints, and relative military abilities.