Sam Tangredi - The U.S. Naval Institute on International Naval Cooperation

In the U.S. Navy, Wheel Books were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more experienced personnel, those weathered pages contained everything from the time of the next tide, to leadership hints from a respected chief petty officer, to the color coding of the phone-and-distance line used in underway replenishments.

In that same tradition, U.S. Naval Institute Wheel Books provide supplemental information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to all naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institutes vast archives, the series combines articles from the Institutes flagship publication Proceedings, as well as selections from the oral history collection and from Naval Institute Press books, to create unique guides on a wide array of fundamental professional subjects.

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

2015 by the U.S. Naval Institute

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The U.S. Naval Institute on naval cooperation / edited by Sam J. Tangredi.

1 online resource. (U.S. Naval Institute wheel books)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-61251-863-3 (epub)

1. Naval strategy. 2. NaviesInternational cooperation. 3. United States. NavyOfficers handbooks. I. Tangredi, Sam J., editor. II. United States Naval Institute.

V163

359.03dc23

2015014650

Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.481992 (Permanence of Paper).

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First printing

CONTENTS

Because this book is an anthology, containing documents from different time periods, the selections included here are subject to varying styles and conventions. Other variables are introduced by the evolving nature of the Naval Institutes publication practices. For those reasons, certain editorial decisions were required in order to avoid introducing confusion or inconsistencies and to expedite the process of assembling these sometimes disparate pieces.

Gender

Many of the included selections were written when the armed forces were primarily a male domain and so adhere to purely masculine references. I have chosen to leave the original language intact in these documents for the sake of authenticity and to avoid the complications that can arise when trying to make anachronistic adjustments. So readers are asked to translate (converting the ubiquitous he to he or she and his to her or his as required) and, while doing so, to celebrate the progress that we have made in these matters in more recent times.

Author Biographies

Another problem arises when considering biographical information of the various authors whose works make up this special collection. Some of the selections included in this anthology were originally accompanied by biographical information about their authors. Others were not. Those biographies that do exist vary a great deal in terms of length and depth, some amounting to a single sentence pertaining to the authors current duty station, others consisting of several paragraphs that cover the authors career. Because of these uneven variables, and because as a general rule we are more interested in what these authors have to say than who they are or were, I have chosen to even the playing field by foregoing accompanying biographies.

Ranks

I have retained the ranks of the authors at the time of their publication. Some of the authors wrote early in their careers, and the sagacity of their earlier contributions says much about the individuals, about the significance of the Naval Institutes forum, and about the importance of writing to the naval servicessomething that is sometimes underappreciated.

Other Anomalies

Readers may detect some inconsistencies in editorial style, reflecting staff changes at the Naval Institute, evolving practices in publishing itself, and various other factors not always identifiable. Some of the selections will include citation support, others will not. Authors sometimes coined their own words and occasionally violated traditional style conventions. Bottom line: with the exception of the removal of some extraneous materials (such as section numbers from book excerpts) and the conversion to a consistent font and overall design, these articles and excerpts appear as they originally did when first published.

Every Sailor who has made a foreign port visit, stood watch during a multinational exercise, or navigated a ship in accordance with the Rules of the Road, has been a part of international naval cooperation. Since the International Rules of the Road, designed to prevent collisions at sea, were created by treaty, international naval cooperation is literally something no Sailor, Marine, or naval officer can avoid.

It is the nature of both strategy and the sea that ships and fleets interact with those of other nations in peace more often than encountering each other as hostile forces in war. In order to survive such interactions in the ever-changing physical conditions of the inherently dangerous maritime environment, ships must maintain at least a small degree of cooperation. The universal moral principle that ships and aircraft should attempt rescue of the survivors of foundering vessels and shipwrecks no matter their nationality is an immemorial custom of the naval service.

In recent years, international naval cooperation has been a subject with which all naval professionals have become at least superficially acquainted. From thenChief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Michael Mullens discussion in 2005 of his vision of A 1000-Ship Navy, to its codification in the 2007 Sea Services strategy entitled A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, and to its implementation as Global Maritime Partnerships (e.g., the Africa Partnership Station [APS]), international naval cooperation has evolved into a primary focus of U.S. naval strategy. But APS and similar efforts are but one form in a spectrum of cooperation. Steaming with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) navies and other treaty allies determined to deter war in their regionas the United States has done for over 60 yearsis the epitome of cooperation, the high end of the spectrum. International naval cooperation is certainly