In this interpretation, navies lost depth partly because expectations of lasting peace after the Cold War reduced the apparent need for spare capacity. Similar hopes are identified after the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, and the Second World War. The criticism is that changing political conditions were treated as a permanent end to rivalry and crisis. Fleet planning based on that expectation left fewer ships available when circumstances changed.
Notable Point · 1:26:16-1:27:17
Post-Cold War peace assumptions eroded fleet depth
The belief that major conflict had receded after the Cold War repeated earlier postwar optimism and encouraged navies to treat reserve capacity as unnecessary.