Introduction

This book focuses upon maritime power. This is an inherently broader concept than either naval power or sea power. Unfortunately for newcomers to this subject definitions frequently vary and different authors use different terms in different ways.4 For the purposes of this book naval power refers to seaborne military forces such as warships, naval auxiliaries, aircraft carried on ships, and submarines. Sea power includes naval forces and also non-military seaborne assets such as merchant ships and fishing vessels. Maritime power embraces all of the

above and all other assets and capabilities that influence directly the ability of a state or organisation to use the sea. This could include land-based aircraft, artillery and missiles, space-based satellites, a facility for effective maritime insurance and a variety of other factors that are not necessarily naval in origin. In the words of contemporary British maritime doctrine, ‘maritime power, in the broadest of senses, is military, political and economic power or influence exerted through an ability to use the sea’.5