SEAPOWER: A GUIDE FOR THE TWENTYFIRST CENTURY/GEOFFREY TILL

Abstract

With the publication of Seapower: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century
Geoffrey Till has set the standard for publications on all things maritime. The
updated and expanded new edition of the book is an essential guide for students of
naval history and maritime strategy and provides essential reading for those
interested in the role of seapower in the twenty-first century. Till notes in the
preface to the second edition of the book (p. xv) that he specifically aimed at
providing a broader international context for the discussion of the role of navies.
The naval policies of China, Japan, India and the United States are used as case
studies of general naval developments around the world. In addition, the analysis
highlights the “… post-modern preoccupations of today’s navies” (p. xvii) including
inter alia the maintenance of good order at sea, coalition operations, and multilateral
terrorism. The central hypothesis of the book is rooted in the notion that the sea is
central to the prosperity and security of all nations, and even more so since the
emergence of an increasingly globalised world trading system. Till argues in
Seapower that the fate of nations is closely link to the sea as a source of resources
and as a means of transportation, information exchange and strategic domination in
all human development.