Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, USN, just delivered the kickoff address and for the purpose of this post I am going to focus on his remarks regarding maritime security and partnership building. Highlights include:

The USN’s increased emphasis on war prevention & partnership building;

The new maritime strategy recognizes preventing wars is just as important as winning wars;

Greater emphasis on building partnerships with other nations does not mean the USN is walking away from traditional warfighting missions;

Trust and Cooperation can’t be surged. It has to be earned.

The USN is using legacy platforms for new missions (USNS Comfort deploying again as part of Continuing Promise 2009, USS Dubuque deploying as part of Pacific Partnership, USS Nashville deploying as part of Africa Partnership Station, and USS Oak Hill will be deploying for Southern Partnership 2009.

I agree 100% with Adm. Greenert that building partnerships & fostering good will is how we should be engaged.