Ensign Benoit Gorgemans

They turn up about once a century, these naval iconoclasts. Nelson’s credentials need no elaboration but from the maverick independence at Cape St. Vincent to the audacity at the Nile; from the wilfulness at Copenhagen to the decisive brilliance at Trafalgar, he set out a warfighting stall that was quite different from any contemporary, on either side. To observe that he was also no slave to social convention draws the lightest of veils across his dalliances at Naples and thereafter.

Commander Lundqvist is Pro-Dean of the Swedish Defence University, military lecturer in its Department of War Studies, and Sweden Chair to the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. An active-duty officer, he has served in various sea- and shore-based positions at tactical and operational levels of command.

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) marks its 75th anniversary, the alliance and its navies are entering a period of much-need revitalization. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has led to greater NATO cohesion and purpose than at any point since the end of the Cold War. As the allied powers confront a more adversarial Russia for the foreseeable future, the choices NATO navies are making today will shape allied commanders’ options for decades to come.