THE OBAMA NAVY.

Galrahn has some thoughts on what Obama's Navy might look like:

Will Barack Obama walk in with his own preconceived notions based heavily on the opinions of advisers to guide him? Repeating George Bush mistakes doesn't seem to be the Obama template. There is barely anything written from a liberal think tank regarding naval power, and yet, in many ways I find myself thinking that much of the strategic thinking coming from the Navy today would fit very well into a liberal core view of how naval forces should be postured, deployed, and operated. Ultimately, the progressive political view regarding the nation's seapower will have to be developed.

Indeed, the 2007 Maritime Strategy is a quintessentially liberal internationalist document, focusing on international cooperation with the United States Navy as the first among equals, rather than the dominant player. This is a key distinction between liberal internationalism and the hegemonic strategy preferred by neoconservatives, and it's one that the Navy has consistently pursued during the Bush administration. On issues such as fighting piracy, disaster relief, and soft humanitarian support (the visit of USS Kearsage to Nicaragua and Haiti, instead of the invasion of Iraq), the Navy can very easily find a role for itself within a liberal internationalist framework. Indeed, I suspect that an Obama administration will provide better guidance for the Navy than either the Clinton administration (which just didn't think all that much about naval affairs) or, needless to say, the Bush administration.

--Robert Farley