Maritime Strategy: Using the Other 71%
Captain Spillner and Commander Livsey will examine the unique characteristics of the sea as a battlespace and conduit for military power, in particular how it differs both legally and logistically from land-based power projection. They will discuss some enduring principles of maritime strategy; illustrate the vital role sea control and/or sea denial have played in `land` campaigns throughout history; and explain anticipated maritime aspects of future conflicts.

Brent Spillner is this year’s US Navy Hudson Fellow and is a Visiting Research Fellow at CCW. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois, with a research focus on real-time expert systems and high-reliability distributed computing, and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Amsterdam, with a specialization in political theory and behavior and a research focus on emerging democracies and armed conflict. He was commissioned as a submarine officer in 1999 via the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He served as a junior officer aboard USS OHIO (SSBN/SSGN 726), and then as Navigator/Operations Officer on USS HAMPTON (SSN 767), Executive Officer on USS ALBUQUERQUE (SSN 706), and as Commanding Officer of USS SPRINGFIELD (SSN 761) and USS GREENEVILLE (SSN 772). He has made four Western Pacific deployments. Ashore, CAPT Spillner has served as an Olmsted Scholar in the Netherlands, Assistant Nuclear Officer Program Manager on the Navy Staff in Arlington, Virginia, Protocol Branch Head for the NATO Allied Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy, and Combat Readiness Evaluation Team Senior Member on the staff of Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Andrew Livsey is this year’s Royal Navy Hudson Fellow and a Visiting Research Fellow with CCW. Andrew has spent most of his career at sea, serving in frigates and other ships in the Baltic, Caribbean, South Atlantic and Arabian Gulf. Service ashore has included Iraq in 2005, leading parts of Royal Navy warfare training and work on UK and NATO doctrine. His research interests are modern naval warfare and the development of military doctrine. He gained the prize for best Masters at the Advanced Command and Staff College in 2017 and has been published in the Mariner’s Mirror and elsewhere.
Date: 15 February 2022, 13:00 (Tuesday, 5th week, Hilary 2022)
Venue: Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details: Seminar Room G
Speakers: Captain Brent Spillner (US Navy), Commander Andrew Livsey (Royal Navy and CCW Visiting Research Fellow)
Organising department: Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR)
Organiser contact email address: info@ccw.ox.ac.uk
Host: Changing Character of War Centre (CCW)
Part of: Changing Character of War (CCW) Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editors: Elizabeth Robson, Siobhan Pebody