Redefinition of naval missions in the post cold war environment

Abstract

The world is again experiencing a new period of change today. The cold war has ended and the strategic environment is changing to reflect those developments. The objective of this study is to describe the changes in naval mission types after the end of the cold war. An analytical method has been used in the study; the developments in the naval strategic environnment will be described in a detailed way. Then the study will try to analyse those developments and try to explain how the naval power missions will be redefined according the new factors. The naval strategic environment is becoming littoral and also more prone to conflictual situations as more states try to seek their national interests, once they are free from the binding conditions of the old bi-polar strategic environment. Some naval missions that were the needs of the global scale confrontation of the cold war will not be of the same importance in this new period. Instead the mission types that can be described as regional and coastal will be more used by the navies of the world reflecting the rise of littorality in the new period.