The United States has ample security due to its distance from other great powers and its command of the maritime commons. The United States can consequently act where and when it wants, as Britain traditionally did in Europe. However, the political stakes between the United States and its allies and adversaries are always inherently asymmetrical. To compensate the United States tends to overcommit itself overseas and oversell its policies at home.

Advantage at Sea explains both how naval forces will be employed and how naval forces will be developed to continue to secure our nation's interests. Five key messages from this strategy that will be discussed:

China is the United States’ most pressing threat. It also represents a comprehensive threat to our allies and partners, and all nations that support a free and open system.

All great powers require steady access to oil to maintain their security, yet they pursue wildly different strategies to obtain it. In some cases, great powers have fought wars for oil, while in other instances, they have allied with oil-exporting countries or simply built strategic petroleum stockpiles to secure supplies. Two causal factors determine the choice of strategy: a state's petroleum deficit and the vulnerability of its oil imports to forcible disruption.

Neither China nor the United States might be willing to risk nuclear war to achieve their limited political aims in future conflicts over Taiwan, North Korea, or disputed maritime territories. US leaders might therefore opt for a naval blockade of Chinese merchant shipping to coerce China to end a future limited war, judging that a blockade poses a lower risk of nuclear escalation than conventional strikes on the Chinese mainland and lower costs than directly engaging Chinese air and naval forces off China’s shores.