Gunboat Diplomacy at the 21 century: Navies as a Status Symbol.

Naval superiority has long been correlated with superpower status and hegemony. However, the growing importance of aviation raises doubts regarding the functional value of navies in the 21st century. Nevertheless, navies remain the most expensive service in the military, and form a heavy burden for many nations’ security budget. This paper tries to examine the motivations behind naval procurement across all coastal states. It does so by revisiting Mahan’s classic theory of naval power and offering a statistical test for its validity. The results show that it is hard to explain naval procurement in traditional strategic terms. The paper proceeds by offering a prestige driven explanation for naval procurement. While Naval power started as a prerequisite for great power status, it became so closely associated with being a great power, that by now it operates as a status symbol desired by great powers contenders, even when its functional value is increasingly challenged. Naval power is one of several institutions of prestige in the international system that serve as a mechanism for establishing hierarchy and deference. An effective system of institutions of prestige is essential for the stability of non-coercive hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]