Sea Power Series: Networking the Global Maritime Partnership

The purpose of Networking the Global Maritime Partnership is to serve as a contribution to the ongoing dialogue regarding the global maritime partnership, and specifically, to address the challenges and opportunities associated with networking this partnership to enhance its effectiveness.

Real-world operations, especially in the Pacific Rim, have demonstrated that networking maritime forces is crucial to the effectiveness of operations that run the gamut from humanitarian operations, to insurgencies, nation-building, and state-on-state conflict. Additionally, these operations often involve nations and navies that come together at short - or no - notice and as a necessary condition for these operations to be successful, this networking must be immediately available and robust.

The central theme of this publication is that overcoming the technical challenges of networking maritime forces together is more daunting today than at any time in history. Why? Simply because unlike in the days when flag hoists or simple radio transmissions were all the networking that navies needed for effective cooperation, rapid technological change has reached nations and navies unevenly and has actually impeded the effective networking of coalition partners.

Before one can examine the technical challenges of networking maritime forces today, one must begin by understanding the history of coalition navies communicating and networking at sea in order to put the challenges - and the opportunities - surrounding networking coalitions at sea in the twenty-first century into the appropriate context. This history can then inform defence and naval policy experts, naval operators, acquisition professionals, scientists and engineers in all the nations and navies committed to maintaining the rule of law on the global commons through global and regional maritime partnerships.