Geostrategy and naval port systems: Frameworks for analysis

Strategic and port studies have largely ignored the importance of naval port systems, even though these systems are (1) essential to the pursuit of strategy at sea and (2) influenced fundamentally by geostrategic decision-making. It is proposed that effective research at the interface between geostrategy and naval port systems can be promoted by reference to five interrelated frameworks: strategic, technological, economic, urban and social. The relevance of these is demonstrated and it is argued that their combined effect is to reveal that the geostrategy-port system interface is considerably more complex and challenging than past research has acknowledged. It is on this basis that extensive further research is justified.