Volume 79, Number 3 (2026) Summer 2026

Engaging with the past while forging the future strategies of naval operations is a priority of the Naval War College Review, and this issue encapsulates that vision well. Starting with our lead article, "The Acquisition Lessons of the 1980s and Their Continuing Relevance" by John Lehman and Anand Toprani, the future of maritime strategy is examined through the lens of lessons learned from the Cold War. In both Robert "Jake” Bebber's article "The Cognitive Dimension of Mobilization: Reconsidering American War Preparation in an Age of Persistent Cognitive Warfare" and Charles A. Richard and John Robinson's "Narrowing Seas: The Littoral Strike Complex and the Future of Naval Warfare," the future of naval operations is investigated through the lenses of emerging forms of cognitive warfare and the use of drones by Ukraine, respectively. Turning toward a more historical lens, “'A True Sailor-Statesman': The Ethical Quandary of Ambassador Raymond A. Spruance in the Philippines" by Andrew K. Blackley reexamines claims of ethical misconduct during Spruance's ambassadorship. Fabio De Ninno's "Fighting without Mastery: Italian Naval Strategy and the Defeat of the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean, 1940–1943" looks at the various reasons the Italian navy failed to control critical sea-lanes during World War II. Finally, Robert C. Rubel revisits concepts of parallelism in warfare strategies of the past in this issue's Research & Debate, titled "Forms of Military Strategy: Historical Parallels between the American Confederacy and Imperial Japan, and a Way Forward.”