Navies in the 21st Century (Seaforth)

[Admiral John Byng]

This is an excellent book on the biggest navies in the world today. Edited by Conrad Waters of the World Naval Review, it fills a huge gap by providing an accessible overview of the changes and strategic challenges affecting the maritime nations.

It has a section on each of the big navies and a particularly interesting one on the Chinese navy, with an explanation of the role the Chinese government has set for it.

There are articles on shipbuilding and design, aircraft and Norman Friedman looks at technical change since the end of the Cold War.

Highly recommended!