Over the coming decades, more and more of the world’s population will be concentrated in coastal regions; and with growing population comes the opportunity for greater economic, political and military power.
This is where the conflicts of the future will happen, and if governments wish to influence events then they must be prepared to act in this space.
The inherent mobility, flexibility and capability of maritime forces provides military and political choice, which is why it remains the favoured means of power projection for western governments, and for aspiring military powers.
I certainly sense no appetite in the West to commit forces ashore in large numbers; whatever the dangers found at sea, the risks of enduring land operations are greater still.
But in any case, the distinction between all these domains is becoming more blurred
We have no choice but to operate across all these domains and to meet conventional and unconventional threats in equal measure.