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Keystone Doctrine Development in Three Commonwealth Navies

Aaron P. JacksonPresentation to the 2009 King-Hall Navy History

ConferenceCanberra, 30-31 July 2009

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Overview• Keystone Doctrine Defined

• Conceptual Foundations of Keystone Naval Doctrine

• Keystone Doctrine Development in the Canadian Navy

• Keystone Doctrine Development in the Royal Australian Navy

• Keystone Doctrine Development in the Royal New Zealand Navy

• The Nature, Role and Significance of Keystone Naval Doctrine

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Keystone Doctrine Defined• In essence, naval doctrine is an

officially sanctioned, formalised and written expression of institutionally accepted ideas about what navies do and how they do it

• Naval doctrine manuals can be categorised based on the “level of conflict” they are designed to guide:– Tactical– Operational– Military-Strategic

• The three navies studied have organised their doctrine manuals hierarchically

• The manual at the top of each navy’s hierarchy is military-strategic in focus and is referred to as a ‘keystone’ manual

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Conceptual Foundations of Keystone Naval Doctrine

• Several ‘earlier’ conceptual developments have been discussed in keystone doctrine:– Command of the Sea– Sea Control– Sea Denial– Power Projection

• The scope of naval activities (the Booth Model):– Diplomatic Role– Policing Role– Military Role

• The scale of Naval activities (Grove):– Canadian Navy and RAN ‘rank

four’ navies– RNZN a ‘rank five’ navy

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Keystone Doctrine Development in the Canadian Navy

• The Canadian Navy developed a strong doctrinal culture at a comparatively early time

• The Canadian Navy has released four keystone doctrine manuals:– The Naval Vision: Charting the

Course for Canada’s Maritime Forces (1994)

– Adjusting Course: A Naval Strategy for Canada (1997)

– Leadmark: The Navy’s Strategy for 2020 (2001)

– Securing Canada’s Ocean Frontiers: Charting the Course from Leadmark (2005)

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Keystone Doctrine Development in the Royal Australian Navy

• Despite the earlier efforts of some officers, the RAN did not commence production of a keystone doctrine manual until the late 1990s

• The RAN has released two keystone doctrine manuals:– RAN Doctrine 1: Australian

Maritime Doctrine (2000)– RAN Doctrine 2: The Navy

Contribution to Australian Maritime Operations (2005)

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Keystone Doctrine Development in the Royal New Zealand Navy

• The RNZN produced a single doctrine manual during the mid-1990s:– Maritime Doctrine for the

Royal New Zealand Navy (1997)

• This manual has not been updated or withdrawn

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The Nature, Role and Significance of Keystone Naval Doctrine

• Four key influences on keystone naval doctrine development:– Individual Officers– Keystone doctrine manuals produced by allied

navies– The nature of naval operations– The role of the navy within the prevailing

national strategy

• The intended effects of keystone naval doctrine:– Generating public awareness of the naval role

in national strategy– Generating awareness among national

strategic policy-makers– Operational guidance a secondary concern

• The content of keystone naval doctrine:– Essentially “a conceptual framework distilling

wisdom from the corpus of work on maritime strategic theory”

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Questions?