Conference report: The Maritime Contribution to the Joint Campaign and National Security Strategy

This report analyses the discussions of a series of closed workshops, hosted by the Royal United Services Institute's Maritime Studies programme, held in the spring of 2009.

The workshops were attended by representatives of RUSI, the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), other government departments and both Houses of Parliament; and by political researchers, industrialists from the naval ship building and commercial maritime sectors, specialist defence press, and analysts and academics. The workshops were supported by the Royal Navy, and were sponsored by Thales.

The workshops focused on:

• The evolving role of sea power in the twenty-first century
• The role of the Future Surface Combatant (FSC) in supporting British defence and security interests; the maritime contribution to UK national security
• The maritime strategy required to support international security.

The aim of the report is to draw out the key findings of the workshop series, and to determine the significance or otherwise of the maritime contribution to joint military operations, to UK defence strategy and policy requirements and to wider national and international security and stability. The UK is an island nation which, arguably, relies to a great extent on the use of the sea. The report examines this assumption in the context of the evolving UK National Security Strategy (NSS), and current Government thinking on the principles and drivers relating to a Future Defence Review (FDR).