From the editors

Naval War College Review, Spring, 2008

In the lead article in this issue, General Victor N. Renuart, Jr., USAF, commander of U.S. Northern Command, and Captain Dane S. Egli, of the U.S. Coast Guard, provide a timely and authoritative overview of potential maritime threats to America's homeland and what still remains to be done to counter them. It is easy enough to become complacent about the security of the homeland in the absence of further terrorist attacks after 11 September 2001, and a great deal has been done since then to lessen the likelihood of their recurrence, including in the area of what has come to be called "maritime domain awareness." Nevertheless, the authors rightly remind us of the magnitude and complexity of this problem and our continuing vulnerabilities.

The Navy's new maritime strategy document, A Cooperative Strategy for Twenty-first Century Seapower, was published in our Winter issue and has been widely disseminated otherwise within and outside the Navy. In this issue, we offer a sampling of the reactions this document has provoked. The British naval historian and strategist Geoffrey Till provides a sympathetic but searching discussion from the perspective of an ally and friend. A more unusual outsider perspective comes from Steve Carmel, senior vice president of the Maersk Line as well as a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. Carmel makes a cogent case that the commercial shipping sector needs to be an integral part of any cooperative global maritime strategy and that it has much to offer the U.S. Navy--especially in the area of maritime domain awareness discussed by General Renuart and Captain Egli. Wayne Hughes and William T. Pendley provide contrasting assessments of the strategy from within the ranks of retired senior naval officers. Finally, Robert Rubel, dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies and a key player in the development of the new maritime strategy, offers important insights into the process by which the strategy was developed and attempts to counter some misunderstandings that have gained a certain traction concerning what the strategy was and was not intended to be.

Featured in our "Asia Rising" department in this issue is Gabriel B. Collins and William S. Murray, "No Oil for the Lamps of China?" This is a careful discussion by two analysts associated with our China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) of the issue of China's dependence on the sea lanes for its future energy needs and the extent to which it might be vulnerable to naval blockade in a future crisis or war. It may be added that the Naval War College Press will shortly launch a new publication series in support of the CMSI, a unique research vehicle dedicated to the analysis of Chinese-language military and technical literature on naval and maritime issues. The first publication in this series, to appear in the spring of 2008, will be PRC Shipbuilding Industry Study: Commercial Development and Possible Military Implications, by Professor Collins and Lieutenant Commander Michael Grubb, USN.

Military law and medicine have been much in the news in recent years but tend to receive relatively little attention in generalist military or other journals. In keeping with a long-standing tradition at the Review, itself linked to the strong presence of military and international law in the curriculum of the Naval War College virtually from its beginnings, we are pleased to revisit one of the most controversial and potentially far-reaching international legal issues currently facing the United States. Rear Admiral William L. Schachte, Jr., USN (Retired), perhaps the Navy's premier authority on this subject, tells us why the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention is good for the Navy and the United States and why its critics are wrong. Finally, Arthur M. Smith, no stranger to these pages, looks at the challenges for military medicine posed by emerging concepts of sea-based and networked operations.

SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION

The editors are delighted to report that the Surface Navy Association, in Alexandria, Virginia, has awarded Honorable Mention in its 2007 Literary Award competition to Martin N. Murphy, for his "Suppression of Piracy and Maritime Terrorism: A Suitable Role for a Navy?" which appeared in our Summer 2007 issue.

OUR BOOK REVIEWS

In our Winter 2008 issue, we published a review by Professor Andrew Erickson, a member of the Naval War College research faculty, of The Impact of Chinese Naval Modernization and the Future of the United States Navy. We now learn that the indicated author, Ronald O'Rourke of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), had no knowledge until our review appeared online that a commercial book version of his CRS report on the subject (which was in the public domain) was in preparation, let alone that it had been published. We and Dr. Erickson were similarly unaware that he had not been approached by the publisher. Mr. O'Rourke wishes our readers to know that he exercised no control over how his report was converted into the book we reviewed and that he will not receive (nor would he consider it proper to receive) any royalties as a result of its sales.