THE UK, A MARITIME POWER? • • METHOD 1

Stage 1 - Introduction: presenting the documents
Similarities: Both documents deal with the UK as a global maritime power that is to say ...def..., focusing on geostrategy, on a world scale.
Differences: The 1st document is an article by Rob Clark about British foreign policy returning east of Suez, published in UK Defence JournalNews on October 10, 2019 whereas the 2nd document is a map of UK overseas bases posted on Wikipedia.com website.
Announce structure: In a 1st part I’ll show how the UK secured the Atlantic region & in a 2nd part I’ll explain how it recently reinforced its Indo-Pacific presence.

Stage 2 - Analysing the documents

DESCRIBING - What you see (docs)
 INTERPRETING - What you know (facts & notions)
1. From securing the Atlantic... thanks to §1 & map

Article P1. Atlantic, west of Suez, regional scale :
UK no longer in EU but not alone
=> reinforced defence co-operation with NATO, US & EU partners
Map Atlantic & Med bases : bases Ascension & Gibraltar, Cyprus

- Brexit (def) + hard power (def) + multilateralism (def)
against Russia, resurging Euro-Atlantic threat (facts)
thanks to NATO, special relationship (def) & EU (def)
- reinforcing UK assets : its OTs (def) naval bases controlling the Mediterranean and Atlantic (facts) & allowing projection power and blue-water capability (defs)
2. … to reinforcing its Indo-Pacific presence with §2 & map

Article P2 New move east of Suez = more global :
renewed links to old partners in the Gulf, Indian & Pacific oceans
Map Indian bases : Old base BIOT + new bases in Bahrein (naval) and Singapore (support & logistics)

- in the Persian Gulf : new base in Bahrein (facts)
- in the Indian ocean : BIOT naval base shared with the US reinforced by new agreements with Singapore & Malaysia and traditional CW (def) allies Australia & NZ (facts) / China
=> UK a true sea power (def) but maybe too ambitious as global commitment could stretch its naval forces (facts)

Stage 3 - Concluding
Assess docs (reliable/biased justified): To conclude, these documents are reliable although we don't have the map full references ; article biased (ambitions, nothing -) whereas map unbiased as it describes the facts.
Sum-up ideas These docs show UK’s growing naval ambitions from securing the Atlantic and Mediterranean to asserting its presence in the Indo-Pacific, so truly global ambitions, which could stretch naval forces despite Royal Navy’s new equipment.
+ Open We may wonder if UK’s maritime economic policy is as ambitious as its naval geostrategy.