NASOH #022 - Corbin Williamson, The U.S. Navy and Its Cold War Alliances, 1945-1953

After World War I, the U.S. Navy’s brief alliance with the British Royal Navy gave way to disagreements over disarmament, fleet size, interpretations of freedom of the seas, and general economic competition. This go-it-alone approach lasted until the next world war, when the U.S. Navy found itself fighting alongside the British, Canadian, Australian, and other Allied navies until the surrender of Germany and Japan. In The U.S. Navy and Its Cold War Alliances, 1945–1953, Corbin Williamson explores the transformation this cooperation brought about in the U.S. Navy’s engagement with other naval forces during the Cold War.  

Like the onetime looming danger of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, growing concerns about the Soviet naval threat drew the U.S. Navy into tight relations with the British, Canadian, and Australian navies. The U.S. Navy and Its Cold War Alliances, 1945–1953, brings to light the navy-to-navy links that political concerns have kept out of the public sphere: a web of informal connections that included personnel exchanges, standardization efforts in equipment and doctrine, combined training and education, and joint planning for a war with the Soviets. Using a “history from the middle” approach, Corbin Williamson draws upon the archives of all four nations, including documents only recently declassified, to analyze the actions of midlevel officials and officers who managed and maintained these alliances on a day-to-day basis. His work highlights the impact of domestic politics and security concerns on navy-to-navy relations, even as it integrates American naval history with those of Britain, Canada, and Australia. In doing so, the book provides a valuable new perspective on the little-studied but critical transformation of the U.S. Navy’s peacetime alliances during the Cold War.  

Corbin Williamson is assistant professor of strategy, Air War College, Montgomery, Alabama. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including books such as The Culture of Military Organizations and The Vietnam War in Popular Culture and periodicals such as the International Journal of Naval History, Diplomatic History, and Joint Force Quarterly.  

Corbin Williamson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/corbin-williamson-39388a8/ 

The U.S. Navy and Its Cold War Alliances, 1945-1953
https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2978-7.html