Like all historical texts, Mahans work tells us as much about the moment in which it was created as it does the objective past. Without a strong domestically focused Coast Guard, a 21st-century great white fleet will have nothing to protect. Diplomatic Couriers, Guide to Country Recognition and politicians concerned by the political and economic challenges of the period and Chinese military sources can tell us exactly what the PLA is learning. There was an emerging power with . 5 (JANUARY 1964), pp. Rodger, Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1659-1815 (New York: Norton, 2005). This had understandable appeal to industrialists, merchants interested in overseas trade, investors, nationalists, and imperialists, and peacetime America. The books structure still bears some of this pedagogical DNA: readers will note a repetitive formula in the chapters as he delivered his thesis from lecture to lecture. @media only screen and (min-device-width : 320px) and (max-device-width : 480px) {
Two years later, he completed a supplementary volume, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 17931812. Sea power asaconcept means more than military power at sea. Mahan's most famous and important work The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 first published in 1890, suggests the main thrust of his historical efforts. As Mahan puts it when discussing the War of the Spanish Succession: The sea power of England therefore was not merely in the great navy, with which we too commonly and exclusively associate it; France had had such a navy in 1688, and it shriveled away like a leaf in the fire.[93] In this respect, Mahan actually shares a great deal with later critics who highlight the importance of a dynamic economy as the ultimate source of national or imperial power. Peter Karsten, The Naval Aristocracy: The Golden Age of Annapolis and the Emergence of Modem American Navalism(New York: Free Press, 1972). The Royal Navys distant blockade of Germany after Jutland likewise mirrored British attempts after Trafalgar to interdict French commerce, while leveraging British seaborne communications. They encourage innovation, self-reliance and . Yeah, reviewing a books Battleship Victory Principles Of Sea Power In The War In The Pacific could grow your close friends listings. Mahans emphasis upon the acquisition of naval bases was not completely new. [58] Benjamin Cooling, Benjamin Franklin Tracy: Father of the Modern American Fighting Navy (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1973). This chapter also discusses how the core principles Mahan borrowed from the Swiss military theorist Jomini - concentration, offensive action, and decision by battle . Nations achieve sea power by defeating an adversarys fleet in a decisive engagement, thereby driving the enemys ships and commerce from the oceans. Since 1945, the maintenance of Freedom of the Seas through a preponderant navy and a vast archipelago of overseas bases has remained a consistent feature of the U.S.-led post-war order. [4] Rowan to Secretary of Navy, February 14, 1869, National Archives and Records Administration, RG-45, M-89, Roll 254. This brings us to Mahans most vital characteristic. Naval War College Digital Commons, 1964 Combining these facts with the knowledge that the Soviet Union has a tremendously large and influential army, we see that the determined Soviet drive at sea rests upon fairly unstable political foundations, straying from the precedents of Russian history and challenging previous policy. [33] Without the former, the latter rests on weak foundations. Mahan viewed the possibility of an isthmus passage (later to be realized in the form of Panama Canal) as necessary for U.S. naval power, since this would become by definition a critical maritime "choke-point" -- the U.S. Navy is a "two-ocean" Navy. Sea Power as an organizing principle or even a grand strategy stems from a more holistic calculation of economic and geographic factors as well as contingent political choices. Traditionally, the Russian Navy had been a source of political recalcitrance. Mahan delineated six principles by which to judge the accomplishments, or potential, of a nation in the realm of seapower: geographical position; physical conformation, including natural production and climate; extent of territory; number of population; character of the people; character of the government, including the national institutions. In 1890, Mahan called the sea a wide common.[92] It takes very little imagination to trace that thought through Wilsons Fourteen Points, to the Atlantic Charter, to more recent commitments to the global commons of sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Mahan was one of the foremost proponents of the vigorous foreign policy referred to by Turner. [21] Furthermore, most of the tactical and naval-strategic insights Mahan articulated in 1890 are derivative of works produced by theorists of land power, notably Antoine-Henri Jomini: an emphasis on decisive engagement; concentration on strategic points; and the imperative of protecting logistics (what Mahan would call communications). Internal resources, strategic situation. 4 (1904): 421-437. Deployment of ships at sea means the Soviet government must relinquish some of its cherished authority into the hands of naval officers, even though these officers are considered thoroughly dependable. Contemporary discussions of Mahanian strategy overlook the importance of the Coast Guard in maintaining domestic maritime power. Naval forces, as the American naval strategist Wayne P. Hughes later agreed, are fundamentally in the links business, assuring: 1) our own goods and services are safe and 2) that an enemys are not.[9] Mahan believed (and used history to demonstrate) that navies are best able to provide this protection through a decisive, concentrated engagement with an adversary fleet. Summary. that westward migration across the North American continent and the countrys Most critically, William (of Orange) and Marys ascent to the British throne in 1688 reconfigured Dutch strategic concerns toward France at the expense of the navy.[41]. Rodgers magisterial The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815. With a broader understanding of Sea Power in mind, Influences aim is to identify the mutually reinforcing relationships between geography, commerce, and military or commercial shippingas well as to explain why individual states do or do not mobilize Sea Power to pursue national goals. In 1890, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, a lecturer in naval Account & Lists Returns & Orders. First, Mahan looked for strategic points of convergence and concentration. In the last decades of the nineteenth century navies grappled with the problem of preparing their officer corps for future wars, while the pace of technological change was accelerating, and there were few conflicts to inform the development of tactical and strategic doctrine. It's free to sign up and bid on jobs. [68] In fact, the network of overseas ports and depots Mahan advocated is mostly akin to the sort of hidden empire detected by Daniel Immerwahr in How to Hide an Empire (2019).[69]. Today, however, the U.S.-flagged commercial fleet accounts for less than 1 percent of the worlds commercial shipping vessels.7 Critical to mitigating this deficit is the Coast Guards port state control program, which inspects foreign ships in national ports to verify that the condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international regulations and that the ship is manned and operated in compliance with these rules.8 The Coast Guard completes more than 9,000 inspections and 130,000 security screening of foreign vessels annually, enabling these vessels to become a de facto part of the U.S. trade fleet. NB: Influence was published in 1890, but I have cited throughout the 1898 version because it is the one most widely available on Google Books c. 2022. Mahan focuses much of his effort towards the "blue-water" Navy, while Julian Corbett[6], in contrast, focuses more intently on the connection between sea and landpower, and the limitations therein. [53] A.T. Mahan, LPATM, Vol I, 563-564. The upshot, he asserted, was that tactical principles like maneuver, firepower, the value of surprise and anti-scouting all translated across the centuries. Without commerce, territorial infrastructure, and political will, naval preponderance is unsustainable. We Need a Bigger Commercial Fleet, Brookings, 4 November 2021. Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986). In this sense, Corbett is less a repudiation of Mahan than a refinement of Mahanian logics. Empire, 17931812, Current His understanding of the anarchical nature of international politics, the importance of geography to the global balance of power, the role of sea power in national security policy, and historys ability to shed light on contemporary world politics remains relevant to the 21st century world. As he stressed, the safety and independence of [the United States] can be preserved only by a foreign policy that will make it impossible for the Eurasian landmass to harbor an overwhelmingly dominant power in Europe and the Far East.[64] Though critical of what he called the extraordinary Anglo-Saxon predilection for thinking that only naval warfare is important, Spykman agreed that a pillar of this balancing act was sufficient maritime power to sustain relations on either end of Eurasia. [16] As what Margaret Sprout called an Evangelist of Sea Power, he was remarkably successful: The Mahanian phrase has been appropriated by all the other branches of the armed services with varying degrees of fidelity (land power, air power, and surely space power is not too far off in the future). Edward Mead Earle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1943). Diss., Temple University, 1999). of State, World War I and the For a modern sailor he is technically underdeveloped, crude, and haphazard in his work. 1867, and increasing American influence over Hawaii by concluding a The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 16601783, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and [63] Rather than controlling the sea or retreating behind it, Spykman argued for consistent engagement with the rimlands of Western Europe, the Middle East, and the Asian Monsoon lands as a means of balancing power and controlling potential hegemons. of the British Empire. Sea Power explains victory throughout. looking outside the continental United States in order to satiate their desire with profound social and economic consequences. Rodger, Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1659-1815 (New York: Norton, 2005). Answer: "To command the seas" How should navies be concentrated? the same Jominian principles as land operations. [22] Mahan, Influence, 71. [27] Though the metropole of an imperial network applies as well. Nov 23, 2022; 6 min; ALL. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month. Mahan on Naval Warfare: Selections from the Writings of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, ed. As new technologies like the railroad knit together states and empires in Central Europe and Asia, the Columbian Epoch of European maritime imperialism would soon end and primacy would revert to the historical norm of continental power achieved via control of the Eurasian heartland, such as with Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, and the like. Skip to main content.ca. I owed it to no other man.[46] Mahan was deeply religious, and so perhaps it should come as no surprise that his conversion to Sea Power has a Road-to-Damascus feel to it. Stipulating his consistent skepticism of commerce raiding as a viable policy, Mahans text actually has relatively little to say about tactics (though he sometimes digresses) or even strategy qua naval strategy. By contrast, with sea control in hand, the U.S. Navy devastated Japans merchant marine with submarine and aerial attacks. Today, the Soviet Union is building the vital merchant counterpart to its naval fleet. The inclination of a people toward the sea, it must be noted, is of vital importance in weighing the naval balance of a nation. . guarantee access to these new international markets. Edward the first prize of the War of the French Revolution. Robert Seager, Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Man and his Letters (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1977). [81], For those interested in a more granular assessment of tactics and operations, Mahan pairs well with his British contemporary Julian Corbett. It could have both. joint resolution of Congress. In 1886, Mahan was recalled from his Pacific postinglikely the best case for all involvedto assume a position at the freshly christened Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island by his mentor and patron Stephen B. Luce. The basic principles of Mahan's maritime strategy were instrumental in evolution of the United States Navy and shaped its operations across two World Wars, the Cold War, and violent peace of the 20th and 21st centuries. Jeremy Greenwood and Emily Miletello, To Expand the Navy Isnt Enough. [17] Margaret Sprout, Mahan: Evangelist of Sea Power, in Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler, ed. [83] Corbett, Principles, 51-56. However, both of . Cart All. Momentary superiority in tonnage or deployable warships often masks a deeper brittleness. Today, U.S. strategists concerned with the vulnerability of sea lines of communication, a retreat from global commitments, or the hollowing out of the domestic industrial base, could find common cause with Mahans logic. Borrowing a phrase from: Charles Maier, Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006). Q. Non-members can read five free Proceedings articles per month. This fleet was unprotected to a large extent during wartime, however, because of the Dutch peoples reluctance to pay the necessary upkeep of a large navy. Chapter 4 - Alfred Mahan "Sea Power" - Foundations of Geopolitics Foundations of Geopolitics PART 1 - Founding fathers of geopolitics Chapter 1 - Friedrich Ratzel. the declining lack of economic opportunity on the American continent. Chinas political and military leaders have not hidden their desire to supplant the United States as the predominant power in the Asia-Pacific region. [7] Mark R. Shulman, Navalism and the Emergence of American Sea Power (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995); Scott Mobley, Progressives in Navy Blue (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2018). This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. During, I his course of study, he spent a semester as an exchange student at West Point and participated in Queen Elizabeth s Silver Anniversary Naval Re- ^ , view in 1977 while on board the USS California. 22-07-2011 17:40:30 ZULU. He also recognized the power potential of China and foresaw a time when the United States would need to be concerned with Chinas rise. Mahan argued that maritime trade is the most important national characteristic in the development of sea power, including having a robust merchant fleet.6 At the time of his writing, this was true for the United States. Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (New York: Penguin, 2017), originally, (New York: Scribner, 1976). In a virtuous cycle, physical access to the sea, commercial trade, and colonial possessions created national wealth. Continental Army and Militia forces under the command of Major General John Sullivan had been besieging the British forces in Newport, Rhode Island, which is situated on Aquidneck Island, but they had finally abandoned their siege and were withdrawing to the northern part of the island. John Hattendorf (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1991). You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month. Lieutenant Commander Clark is a Coast Guard response ashore officer and is currently assigned as a personnel recovery and search-and-rescue planner at U.S. Northern Command. and national population are all tools which the government may use, or fail to use, in its quest for primacy upon the seas. Put briefly, Mahan as grand strategist argued that Britain's "sea power" underwrote its rise to strategic preponderance in the European system from 1650 to 1780. 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