Conor O’Neill joined the Royal Navy in 1999 as a University Cadet (Warfare). He read Modern History and Politics at Wadham College, Oxford and completed at Masters in 2004. Following Fleet Navigating Officer’s Course in 2007, he joined HMS CUMBERLAND, then HMS CHATHAM, deploying to the Arabian Gulf in 2008 on Operation TELIC. Having returned to the UK, he served on the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training (Mine Warfare and Patrol Vessels) as a navigation sea-rider before assuming Command of HMS TRACKER and Oxford URNU in September 2009.

The most likely friction points between China and the United States are located at sea. It is not clear that existing security studies scholarship—based on territorial, nuclear, and civil conflict—applies comfortably to the maritime domain. As one example, a “denialist” school in security studies argues that counterintervention technology makes defense dominant in the region. Nonetheless, the US Navy remains a fleet designed for an offensive approach of power projection and sea control.