Before WWI, all the major powers were making battleships, and just the sheer number of such ships created instability. The same problem is happening today because of submarines.
Every imbecile nation in the world is procuring submarines at a ridiculous rate, so I propose the USN create a special detachment to cull a lot of these boats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_submarines
The idea is simply to cause an increase in unexplained submarine accidents around the world. They submerge and never surface again.
The common Russian built Kilo class submarine has a maximum depth of a little over 300 meters, and the Persian Gulf is just a third of that at its deepest.