Last week a fellow contributor to USNI noticed that the US Navy has a new slogan: “America’s Navy – A Global Force for Good” . The slogan is likely an attempt to highlight the Navy’s growing role like a instrument of US soft power round the world. From calamity relief in the Pacific to health clinics in South America the Navy is quickly positioning itself as America’s de facto soft power force.

I would not at all be surprised if in five years you would be hard pressed to find a sailor that hadn’t participated in a humanitarian mission.