Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote the seminal book, “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660-1783,” more than 100 years ago. It has been studied by midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy ever since. It is as applicable today as during the period that was analyzed.
Sea power is the ability to use oceans for any purpose, civilian or military. When a nation is the dominant world sea power, such use is without constraint. The global power of Britain for almost two centuries was a direct result of sea power. American civilian and military power since World War II was achieved and sustained by sea power.
The rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean from Somali pirates is just one, the most recent, example.
Sea power is achieved only through sustained effort over decades if not centuries. The American Navy embodies the traditions beginning before the Revolution.
John Paul Jones’ retort to a request to surrender in the midst of a raging sea battle, “I have not yet begun to fight,” is emblazoned over his battle flag hanging in Memorial Hall at the Naval Academy. Jones and Lord Nelson of England were molded in the same traditions, just as the captain of the USS Bainbridge and the heroic Phillips were molded.
In any crisis since WWII, all presidents inevitably ask: “Where are the carriers and where are the Marines?” Today they also ask, “Where are the SEALs?”
Most Americans are not aware of the sustained and, yes, heroic effort of American submarines during the Cold War. Most Americans cannot imagine what it took for five separate carrier battle forces to remain at sea for nine months at a time during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Few appreciate that our ability to project sustained power in Europe, the Pacific, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan would have been impossible without sea power.
Phillips, the crew of his ship, the captain and crew of the Bainbridge, the SEALs firing on the pirates and, yes, the president ordering the use of force when necessary, all embody a multi-century tradition of the creation and judicious use of civilian and military sea power that sustains our way of life.
BZ (Navy flag hoist code for well done) to each and every one, and the men and women who came before them.
Opinion
In our view: Sea power’s influence on history
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