Treaties met three different strategic problems

How did the interwar naval treaties affect the development of task-force doctrine?

The assessment is negative for the Italian and French navies and partly negative for Japan. Britain and the United States approached the limits through their different needs for dispersed sea control and naval expansion.

The immediate assessment is that treaty restrictions hindered task-force development in the Regia Marina and Marine Nationale, and to some extent in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The subsequent comparison explains why the same limits met different institutional problems. Britain needed locally assembled forces capable of holding distant sea areas until a fleet arrived. William Sims emphasized education and mixed-force thinking for an American navy expected to expand. Mitsumasa Yonai and associated officers faced a Japanese service whose victories reinforced confidence in existing methods. Treaty limits therefore interacted with each navy's strategic commitments and willingness to change.