Naval Diplomacy: A Critical Component of National Power explores the dynamics of a nation’s foreign influence in contexts of national security strategy and the use of maritime strategy through the employment of naval forces to secure and ensure the use of the sea to advance the national interest. The capacity of a nation’s navy to deploy and employ sea power in pursuit of strategic national objectives invariably determines the degree to which such a nation could shape its fate in the comity of nations. This work offers critical insights into the components of naval diplomacy and the conditions of engagements that could help a nation assert itself in the international system. It provides an elaborate theoretical framework and empirical illustrations that should enable the reader to appreciate the practical relevance of a strong and strategically positioned navy in national development. It highlights the critical role of strategy, policy and technology in shaping national power as well as the theoretical concepts of sea power, maritime strategy, maritime security, national strategy, grand strategy, national policy, national interest and defense policy, among others. Beyond naval constructs, the book also examines the concepts of arms dynamics and military technology, defense economics and interrogates military means as a solution to political conflict. A synopsis of salient theoretical concepts in strategic discourse, the book highlights the interplay of geostrategy occasioned by changing paradigms in the international system. Its precepts are extensively relevant to the development of the Nigerian Navy and a good read for scholars of strategic studies.