Although the Soviet navy is still afloat, most of the other post-second world war rationales upon which our military structure was built either have sunk or are listing badly in the water, swamped by a sea change wrought not only by time and technology but also by a new dynamism in international politics. 
These former dreadnoughts include the role once played by nuclear weapons, the short-war scenarios <tag "515647">derived</> from such nuclear dependence, and the strategies that call for the forward basing of troops which we have clung to since the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, 40 years ago.   

