After the grueling efforts required during World War I, the United States and Britain were war-weary. This war weariness affected the political climate and manifested itself in extreme budget cuts in military spending. The military institutions of both countries continued their training and sought to prepare for World War II. The contrast between the preparedness of the United States and British navies represents a remarkable dichotomy of the interwar period; the United States being a model of innovation and Britain remarkably complacent. The reasons may be explained by how both countries perceived the threat after World War I, their assessment of where the potential naval conflict would arise, and what capabilities their own navies would need to succeed in the next war. and during World War II, Britain and the United States took different paths to prepare their navies for future conflicts. The British were complacent and the United States was eager to prepare. The initial causes came from the way the two countries assessed the threat after the First World War. Britain did not consider any national navy to be a rival, unlike the United States which believed that Japan would be its enemy in the next war. By the end of World War I, Germany had scuttled its active ships. The Treaty of Versailles had further restricted Germany's ability to build more ships and equip them, so much so that at the time, Germany had been destroyed as a maritime power. British naval planners saw the threat posed by the German Navy of being relegated to a coastal defense navy, which would not be able to challenge the British naval supremacy on the high seas. The Treaty of Versailles and later the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 gave Britain...... middle of paper ......d serves as an example of what not to do and how to what to do. The British seemed to be resting on their laurels and were the better navy by the end of the First World War. Without an assessed adversary, without an understanding of where the next naval conflict would take place and what capabilities the Navy would need to succeed, innovation stagnated and the Navy was unprepared when war resumed in 1939. The United States was, however, able to identify who the possible threat was if the Navy were to fight and was able to develop the capabilities necessary to engage and defeat the threat. Works Cited Kuehn, John T. Perspectives from Britain, Japan and Germany H204 RAMillett, Allan R. "Patterns of Military Innovation." Military Innovation in the Interwar Period Murray, Williamson R. (08/13/ 1998). Military innovation in the interwar period (p. 242).