FROM THE EDITORS

The nation's persisting fiscal crisis continues to pose severe challenges to the military services of the United states, while at the same time inviting a rethinking of fundamental assumptions about our defense requirements-to repeat a point we made in this place in our last issue. the lead article of that issue addressed possible responses by the Marine Corps to what it called a "period of austerity." In this issue, robert C. rubel turns to the Navy. His broad-ranging, historically focused article, "National Policy and the Post-systemic Navy," begins from the premise that times of austerity are always times of danger, because they intensify pressures from political elites and the public to articulate persuasively overarching strategic concepts that serve to justify the immense costs associated with sustaining particular services. today, as in 1954, 1979, and 1992, altered circumstances confront the Navy with just this challenge, rubel argues. over the last decade the Navy has adjusted to the changes in the strategic environment brought about by the fall of the soviet Union, the war on terror, and globalization by formulating and implementing a new naval strategic concept centered on maritime security cooperation in defense of the global "system." However, as we look at the rapidly changing international picture, it is far from clear that the current "systemic era" can be sustained indefinitely; accordingly, the Navy needs to be prepared to reexamine and refine-or redefine-its fundamental strategic concept. robert C. rubel is dean of the Center for Naval Warfare studies at the Naval War College.

One of the surprises awaiting incoming...