Navy Strategic Culture: Why the Navy Thinks Differently

To provide readers with insights into how naval officers think about how to conduct naval warfare, retired naval officer and Naval War College professor Emeritus Roger Barnett opens the oceangoing service for inspection.

He attributes the unstructured, at-sea environment with powerfully conditioning an officer’s way of thinking, explaining that the watery setting forces them to be constantly alert, self-reliant, and willing to take risks. In characterizing the culture, he describes an expeditionary mindset, underwritten by history and nourished by experience that sets naval officers apart from the other branches of the military.

Barnett shows how officers think about the theory and the practice of warfare in oceanic and littoral contexts. In his examination, he clearly demonstrates the unequivocal successes wrought by the culture over the centuries as naval officers met the challenges posed by the conduct of warfare on, under, over, and from the seas.

About the Author

Roger W. Barnett, Captain, USN (Ret.) taught at the Naval War College and is the author of numerous articles on naval strategic culture and the co-editor of Strategy and Seapower. He is resident of Newport, RI.