"I think adapting not just to change, but the speed of change, is critical," says Admiral Mike Mullen.
The Chief of Naval Operations says it's time the Navy came up with a fresh maritime strategy to confront new threats and the accelerating pace of globalization.
"We must redefine sea power for this new era and explain how we will operate differently, train differently, educate differently, and balance our forces differently." Admiral Mike Mullen lold a Naval War College audience on 14 June.
"It must help us win the big wars and the small ones," he added. "Two challenges, one Fleet."
Admiral Mullen contended that the United States-as a powerful maritime nation-must exploit its inherent naval strengths of influence, flexibility, and partnerships to gel out in front of events in a world beset by terrorists, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, and pirates armed with satellite phones rather than cutlasses-just for starters.
Speaking at the Current Strategy Forum, an annual event at the War College in Newport. R.I., he pointed to three principal effects of globalization that he said are driving the need for a new strategy:
* The "undeniable expansion of interdependent world markets and economics on a truly global scale that binds nations, corporations, and people."
"We are all mm connected." he said. "We trade with our enduring allies, just as we do with nations for whom our friendship is still burgeoning."
* A race tor energy that "compounds and complicates the natural frictions evident in market-based economics."
The CNO was quick to point out that he does not consider a world war for oil anywhere near, hut emphasized that "we would he foolhardy not to factor into our planning the impact that energy competition and the future state of energy resources have-and will have-on our security."
* The "rapid and unfettered spread of ideology" fostered by technologies that can transmit information in the blink of an eye.
Near instant communications, he said, "can he a good thing. . . hut it is also a powerful force to reckon with in the hands of those who wish freedom ill."
In what was billed by his staff as a major address. Admiral Mullen challenged members of his audience to grab a notebook and begin fashioning the new strategy.
"I'd like to get started on it as soon as possible." he said.
"But let's be frank," he continued. "The reason we do not have such a new maritime strategy already is that the scope and the scale of the threat-the issues involved-the complexity of this globalized era and this staggering pace of change seems almost impossible to plan for. But plan for them we must."
Since Admiral Mullen took over as the nation's top Sailor, the Navy has found itself reacting to a host of missions and events that have come streaming at it one after another-from supporting forces ashore in the Global War on Terror to tsunamis and hurricanes. It is this almost overwhelming series of developments that prompted the CNO's call for a new strategy.
While recent maritime strategies that focused on sea control were appropriate for their times, he said, the new one must ensure that the sea lanes of the world are sale and open to all.
He cited the Navy's response to the Indonesian tsunami as but one example of how naval forces can influence hearts and minds. "[These] are exactly the types of missions our new maritime strategy must include," he said.
To exploit the service's inherent flexibility, he is considering establishing what he called Global Fleet Stations as hubs where "all manner of joint, inter-agency, international organizations, navies, coast guards, and non-governmental organizations could partner together. . . ."
U.S. contributions might include shallow-draft ships and support vessels plus foreign area officers (FAOs) fluent in the langauge of the nation to which they are assigned and familiar with the culture.
As for partnerships, he believes that the concept of a 1,000-ship navy composed of forces from many nations standing watch with each other throughout the world is gaining increased support.
Admiral Mullen has embraced that concept, which surfaced initially in an article in the November 2005 Proceedings by Vice Admiral John G. Morgan Jr. and Rear Admiral Charles W. Martoglio.
The CNO challenged the Navy to rid itself of the notion "held by so many tor so long, that maritime strategy exists solely to tight and win wars at sea and that the rest will take care of itself.
"In a globalized, flat world," he concluded, "the rest matters a lot."