Sailing New Seas, Admiral J. Paul Reason, Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, with David G. Freymann, Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, 1998, 93 pp.

Any time a high-ranking officer of the navy publishes a book, it deserves attention. This one especially does because Admiral Reason's topic is change. The Navy today is going through the most radical period of change in its history. First the Information Age strikes, adding not just new weapons and new sensors, but new ways of organizing our forces and fighting with them. Much of naval warfare involves gathering information, so the impact of advanced information processing is far-reaching.

Now add a period of intense political change, the most rapid seen in this century. Two generations of naval officers, trained to face a single opponent, now must adapt to a wide variety of threats, not just more than one opponent, or an unknown opponent, but an unknown kind of war, that might range from national navies using nuclear weapons to terrorists to computer hackers with designer viruses.

The Navy needs ideas - visions - and the Navy's bureaucratic structure does not lend itself to creativity. Admiral Reason's book provides it. Reason's book is structured as a problem-solving exercise, in three parts labeled, "Where We Are, What To Do," and "How To Do It." Clearly written in a down-to-earth style, it recommends changes to the Navy's organization, not its ships or weapons. He studies the age we live in, the way companies have organized themselves, and also draws on some of the basic tenets of the Navy, like giving the people at the point of the spear all the information they need, and letting them make the decisions. I don't believe Admiral Reason has all the answers. I'm not even sure his answers will work, but his thinking on the problem is clearest yet. At least someone is thinking about the problem.

There is an excellent set of appendices that include "Fighting Principles" and "Tactical Development." The first is one of the best and most modern lists of warfare axioms I have seen.
BT