 The U.S. Naval War College is a Navy's home of thought. Established in 1884, NWC has become the center of Naval seapower, both strategically and intellectually. The following issues in national security lecture is specifically designed to offer scholarly lectures to all participants. We hope you enjoy this upcoming discussion and future lectures. Good afternoon and welcome to our first issues in national security lecture for this academic year. I'm John Jackson and I will serve as the master of ceremonies for today's event. I'd like to note there are a few of us enthusiastic here in the building and also a large group in online with Zoom and we welcome both groups. To open our session I'd like to turn the microphone over to our new Provost Dr. Stephen Mariano for his welcoming remarks. Provost. Thank you John and welcome everyone. Yes, I'm Stephen Mariano. I'm the new Provost here at the Naval War College and on behalf of Admiral Chatfield who's currently traveling. It's my pleasure to welcome you all here this evening and also welcome David. Thank you very much for being here. Every day our students have the opportunity to hear from world-class scholars and study the most pressing security issues of the past, present and even future. In short we wanted to provide all of you with similar opportunity. Consequently the purpose of the issues in national security lecture series is to provide intellectual stimulation to the broader naval war college community. Opportunities to those of you that might not be able to attend our academic programs. What started as a program for spouses and significant others has grown because it became so popular. We enlarge it to audiences throughout the community to the staff and other employees across the base. We hope that these lectures give the participants a taste of what the students receive every day and so today you'll see the first offering on the menu for the 2022-2023 year. We kick off the series with one of our most knowledgeable speakers Professor John Maurer who will introduce us all to the brilliant work by one of our founding fathers, Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. One simply cannot understand the U.S. Navy or naval power in general without understanding a bit about Mahan or is it Mahan. Now I'm a retired Army officer so it's my duty to point out that Admiral Mahan was the son of Dennis Hart Mahan who I'm sure we'll probably hear a little bit about. He was a celebrated military theorist, civil engineer and professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1824 to 1871. But regardless of your affiliation, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coastie, Government, Civilian, International, Fellow, Faculty, Staff, Intern or Spouse, we hope you enjoy the talk this evening and continue to talk about it and the other lectures throughout the year long after they're over and long after the Q&A sessions are finished. So thank you all for attending and I'd like to give my personal thanks to the Johns, Jackson and Maurer. We appreciate it and have a good evening. Over the 2022-2023 academic year we will be offering 16 lectures from some of the best scholars in the world, folks here on our resident faculty. This is intended to share a portion of the experience as the Provost has explained so that you have a feel for what the students are being exposed to and I've challenged several of you already to take notes and then go home and ask your student if they know that fact. I'd like to stir up the pot whatever possible. So we do include spouses, significant others, War College Foundation members, international sponsors and people from around the world who watch us via Zoom and we're very pleased to have that happen. So this is the schedule and it's an eye test so I won't attempt to go through all of it but normally we're on Tuesday afternoons. The next one will be Space and National Security Professor Burbach and it may very well be that the Artemis I mission which is an unmanned mission going around the moon will take place before that lecture or it could get postponed again. Either way we will talk about space and national security. The conflict in Ukraine obviously is critically important to all of us. We'll be talking about that global climate etc. Then we'll take the winter break, come back we're going to talk about humans versus machines. Professor Tim Schultz will talk about the Arctic number of other issues, China, women, peace and security. I will do my drone pitch one nation under drones indivisible with liberty and justice for all and then we'll have a final two sessions after the spring break and then wrap it up with a season finale. So it's a great opportunity for people to learn. We will not give you any academic credit however we will award certificates of participation for those who attend 70% of the lectures. That's 11 out of the 16 so keep track of the ones you attend and if you'd be interested in getting that certificate we'll make that possible for you towards the end. So after today's discussion we'll take about a five minute break and then we'll reconvene for the family discussion group discussions and we will do these most weeks where we'll have people from naval station Newport and other support organizations brief all of you on issues of concern. We're going to talk about schools and other sources today so if you'd like to stay on please feel free to do that. Okay mom and the main event during the presentation it follows our virtual participants should feel free to ask questions using the chat function on zoom and we'll recognize questions here in the audience and then we'll also take questions from our virtual participants. We ask that you use the microphone that's in front of your chairs if you're going to ask a question so everyone can hear you and our virtual participants can hear as well. This evening lecture will introduce you to one of the most important officers in U.S. naval history. Alfred there Mahan I never can get that served as the second president of the naval war college an officer in the United States Navy he fought in the American Civil War and held commands both at sea and ashore during his long professional naval career. The college's founder Admiral Stephen B. Lewis brought Mahan to Newport to serve on the faculty and present lectures on strategy and naval history. He subsequently turned these lectures into best-selling books on the influence of sea power upon history. These histories are widely considered the most influential work of non-fiction written by an American author during the 19th century. In addition to his histories Mahan wrote extensively about international rivalries of his day involving the great powers. Professor Maurer will briefly examine Mahan's writings about world politics and great power strategic competition drawing out parallels that exist between his era and our own times. Professor John Maurer serves as the Alfred there Mahan distinguished university professor of sea power and grand strategy at the college he previously served as chair of the strategy and policy department. The author and editor of numerous books and articles his next book coming out next month from the U.S. Naval Institute Press is entitled The Road to Pearl Harbor Great Power War in Asia and the Pacific. I'm pleased to pass the podium to one of the most one of the smartest and most eloquent speakers which I am not Professor John Maurer. Good afternoon everyone I am going to speak as John said about Alfred there Mahan that's the correct pronunciation he told people that's how you pronounce his name Mahan was the second president here at the Naval War College his books and articles achieved for him an international standing recognized as a writer on history he was president of the American Historical Association his books on history also garnered for him honorary degrees from major universities around the world Oxford Cambridge Harvard Yale again recognized as a great historian but he also also wrote about international affairs and world politics his articles his articles on international strategic matters were sought after by the public and also by leaders so today I'm going to talk about the time in which Mahan lived the navy in which he served the country the United States place in world affairs and also the international environment of his time well the influence of sea power upon history published in 1890 by the Boston firm Little Brown it's important to note that this book started as lectures here at the naval war college for students in the old school house across the way now the museum of the naval war college by the way Mahan tried to pedal this book to several publishers who turned him down he was frustrated by that I've never had any of my books turned down so I have never had that experience not true I just lied to you on stage anyway he was frustrated by this and in fact he almost gave up in the attempt to publish his book but instead he persevered and eventually the publishing house of Little Brown took up the publication of his book they took a risk there wow did they do well in signing Mahan the book became an international bestseller and has been in print ever since again one of the marks of a classic book if you remember from your high school teachers is what stand what makes a book a classic a work of art a class it has withstood the test of time just think about that 1890 to our own time Mahan's books are still in print and read well what's the influence of seapower about the first sentence of the book lays out what the story of seapower is about it's largely as he says a contest among great powers rivalries ending in violence culminating in war this is a very stark stark view of international relations that countries are destined almost inevitable to become rivals of each other that the international system is marked by these intense rivalries that lead to war again this stark view of international relations is one that we would like to avert our gaze and say it can't possibly be these struggles for power won't won't occur again at the end of the 19th century when he was writing many pointed and said great power war it's impossible the world economy is too knit together war between great powers would be economic suicide the victors will not come out of such a struggle even better and better in any way than those that have lost the struggle Mahan is taking a stand against that he's saying that ancient rivalries wars from the ancient world the ancient Greeks lucidities these will be played out again into the future his books are meant to be a warning a warning about the dangers in the international environment and so the very first sentence of the influence of seapower really grabs you gets your attention right up front that that's the story has to tell a story of war of rivalry of international jealousies well what about the college where he came to be professor of strategy and second president well its founder was steven b loose noted noted exemplary officer in the navy of his time served in the civil war while in the civil war he took part in a number of campaigns but one campaign was to work with general Sherman his Sherman marched through the south through Georgia and then up north through the carolinas loose would hold conversations with Sherman he was so impressed by general Sherman Sherman could outline the history of the future he could tell how operations were going to unfold he predicted almost to the day when the confederate fortress city of charleston would fall loose was so impressed by Sherman and his knowledge of operations and strategy that he thought that anyone who is in the service of the armed forces needs to have that education be able to be like Sherman able to predict to see the history of the future well that is one of the motivations that he had for establishing the naval war college which as he wrote said should be a place for the study of war statesmanship related to the prevention of war again we would call this is a place to study war but also questions of international relations as well well he brought mehan to be the professor of strategy here and assigned to him to deliver lectures and so mehan spent a year in new york city using libraries to put together his lectures that eventually became his books on the influence of sea power now one of the reasons why loose chose mehan to come here to be a professor of strategy was because mehan already had a reputation in the service as being an intellectual officer he had already published a book about the u.s navy in the american civil war a book called the gulf in inland waters he had also written an article for the u.s naval institute proceedings about naval education the role of education for a naval officer but another factor as was highlighted by the provost was that his father was a celebrated legendary professor of engineering but also we would say operations and tactics many of the civil war generals studied operations under denise hart mehan and so loose looked at the younger mehan and thought he's going to be for the navy like his father had been for the army that educator of sherman and grant mehan himself in his autobiography said that no doubt he was chosen because it was hoped that some of his father's ability to be a great teacher would rub off on him well the influence of c power upon history the first volume came out in 1890 and as mentioned mehan already had a long service career he graduated from the naval academy right on the eve of the american civil war and was thrust right into the operations of the american civil war so he saw war firsthand well what are some of his teachings on strategy well it's important that mehan wanted to highlight the importance of strategy he called strategy what the queen of military sciences he highlighted in his writings in his lectures he said that this is what determines strategy determines the outcome the outcome of war a country armed services can win battles and yet still lose the war if the strategy isn't sound and he wanted to highlight that to the officers that he was educating the fundamental importance of strategy and indeed the college's reputation since behance time to the present day rests on the education strategy that we offer here well the book was right away a sensation uh in the united states and around the world one of the first reviewers was theodore roosevelt future president of the united states look what he wrote distinctively the best most important and by far the most interesting book on naval history produced in many a long year again what does mehan show the practical importance of the study of naval history it's not naval history for its own sake it's for the application of history to understand better current affairs current problems and again roosevelt is highlighting that who wish to estimate and use a right the navies of the present again mehan is a historian but he's also trying to instruct instruct those students in his charge those that read his books about the importance of history for understanding today's problems well uh theodore roosevelt wasn't the only person to be taken by mehan's books kaiser villhelm of germany read the books kaiser villhelm was the grandson of queen victoria of britain uh he spoke english fluently uh he uh told an american correspondent friend of his that he's not just reading mehan but he's just devouring it the book is that good he's trying to learn it by heart again here at the naval war college we want our students to learn mehan by heart again it's a first-class work he says and all of its points it's as it translated into german and it's aboard all of his ships and again his captains and officers are constantly quoting it he says to his american correspondent by the way over the museum there is a copy of the influence of c power upon history the german translation uh over in the museum urge you all to go over the museum to get a sense of the college's history but you can also look at this translated volume of mehan's work again villhelm villhelm of germany the emperor was very much taken by mehan's work but it's not just mehan's generation that generation of theodore roosevelt and kaiser villhelm but also a younger generation as well who read mehan you can see winston churchill on the right there this is from august 1941 a summit meeting off the coast of newfoundland uh the atlantic conference just as the us is emerging getting ready to emerge into the second world war president roosevelt had a meeting with winston churchill winston churchill was a reader of mehan he actually met mehan in 1911 when he was first lord of the admiral bank and told mehan that he was reading his latest book on naval strategy uh we know this because mehan wrote to his publisher of that book naval strategy it said the first lord of the admiral was reading my book it must be really important how about that uh churchill later in life would say there is no greater thinker on naval strategy than mehan another person who read mehan was franklin d roosevelt the future president of the united states during the second world war you cannot understand churchill and roosevelt's strategy in the second world war without understanding the influence of mehan upon history uh roosevelt as a boy as a teenager was a given a copy of mehan's influence of c power upon history as a present from his mother he was smitten he loved the book he read everything that mehan wrote if you're looking for christmas presents for your children or birthday presents you can give them a copy of mehan's works uh roosevelt by the way wanted to put together a collected collection of mehan's writings and edit them that was one of the goals he had set for himself when he was no longer president after roosevelt passed away his wife elinor was asked by a journalist what what books did your husband read what books were most influential in shaping his intellectual map and without missing a beat elinor roosevelt said he was always quoting and talking about alfred fair mehan again roosevelt roosevelt franklin d roosevelt was a close student and as you'll see in a moment uh also corresponded with mehan but behind these two great political leaders you see two naval officers on the right admiral harold betty nicknamed stark chief of naval operations at this time uh naval war college class of 1923 where he read mehan and you can go to the archives you can see his strategy uh and policy paper and in that you can see where he quotes mehan next to him admiral urnis j kink who would take over as chief of naval operations during the second world war uh naval war college class of 1933 again you can look at his strategy paper where he quotes mehan again these officers in residence here who would be the great naval leaders of the second world war they studied mehan well what about the navy of mehan's time talked about the college and its influence on future leaders what about the navy well this is 1893 this is the front line strength of the navy a squadron of cruisers going off to european waters to show the american flag and the flagship is the cruiser uss chicago mehan was tasked to be the captain of the chicago the flagship of the squadron uh mehan didn't want to go he wanted to stay here at the naval war college and continue his pursuits of writing by the way his writings were quite lucrative to him and if you look at mehan's papers you see he could count every penny that came in he was very much interested in royalties well he didn't want to go to um to go off to europe to uh uh be captain of the chicago but he was told by the head of navy personnel commodore ramsey it's not the business of a naval officer to write books naval officers go to see mehan and his autobiography said he resented this but he agreed it was the duty of naval officers to go to see and so he went to see as the flag captain of the squadron aboard the chicago well the admiral of the squadron admiral urban a famous naval uh hero of the american civil war uh he and mehan did not get along and urban wrote a fitness report of captain mehan and this is some extracts from it mehan's interests are entirely outside and he cares but little for the navy i asked my students would you like to have this as your fitness report he's not a good naval officer again not observant with regard to the ship's welfare or appearance and he doesn't inspire confidence in any way in fact the first few weeks of the chicago's crews positively discreditable mehan's interests in the service literary work oh my goodness mehan's a geek he's a geek yeah he's not really interested in the service in any other way by the way mehan bitterly resented this fitness report that he was given and contested it well mehan and the college their reputation rests together by the early 1890s the college had been around for almost a decade and some of the navy's uniform leadership said the college was a good experiment loose set up something but it's not worth the resources that are being spent upon it what do officers do during their year in residence at newport well they go to the casinos off belview avenue they have a good time but but they really don't learn anything of importance again commodore ramsey's view is that you should be at sea with ships not on land studying history well they went to the secretary the navy hillary herbert and convinced him that the naval war college should be closed down a worthy experiment gave it a shock but ended well herbert uh aborted a steamship to go from washington up to newport with the intention of closing down the college as he was leaving washington one of his aides handed him the influence of sea power upon history and said sir read this so while traveling steaming north to newport he read the influence of sea power upon history this is what he wrote to mehan in 1893 this book is worth all the money that has been spent on the naval war college changed herbert's mind he intended to abolish the college when he left washington but now he's going to do all in his power to sustain it one of the definitions of power is to change somebody's mind they want to do one thing and you convince them to do something opposite from what they wanted to do that's real influence that's real power this is a case of the power of words of mehan's writings it is also no doubt the case too that the secretary of the navy was reading the reviews that were coming out about mehan's works and also that mehan aboard the chicago and the european tour he was being faded by everyone he met kaiserville home he met queen victoria he met the prime minister of great britain they all were claiming him as a great writer with publicity like that the secretary of the navy no doubt not just reading the books but seeing that mehan's work was striking a responsive chord there was something to it and again it was a product of the naval war college so the college has survived down to her own day what about the nation the united states of america in mehan's time well first again recognize it's the aftermath of the american civil war the bloodiest war in american history here's a painting of the battle of spotsylvania the blue against the gray the north against the south the union against the confederacy horrific struggle marked by some new technologies iron clads the monitor and the virginia fighting off hampton roads showing that the future was going to be with iron and steel not wood a famous painting making peace that hangs in the white house it shows president lincoln meeting with his top generals grant and sherman toward the end of the war an admiral david dixon there again we would call this joint operations the final campaigns of the war how to bring this war to an end you see in this beautiful painting there the rainbow the promise of the future that what has stricken the united states in this civil war won't ever happen again what a beautiful painting it is and lincoln listening to his generals and admiral about how to conclude what we would call war termination bring an end to operations well another painting generally the famous general of the confederacy the best general surrendering to general grant at apomatics courthouse in april 1865 again the generation that mahan lived through the horror of the american civil war in the aftermath of the war how do you bring the country together the country is now united again by war it is the united states of america united strong central institutions are needed to keep this country together not have a break apart in political polarization well in addition to that how do you economically knit together the country so you have great infrastructure uh projects like the building of the railways across the united states linking together the country economically as well as war has linked it together politically here you see a famous work of art from 1872 by john gas the brooklyn it shows columbia the female personification of america america's manifest destiny she's traveling across the country from east to west from the ports the cities you can see the railways being built uniting the country together you can see too what is she doing she's laying the internet there with cable and in her hand she has a schoolbook yes information is going around being transported across the country but to make sense of that information you have to have educated people again public education is so important for educating a populace to understand the environment in which they live again education is part of uniting the country together again this is a sense that america recovering from the civil war has that destiny that great future ahead of it well to understand a time it's useful to look at the music of the time what are people singing well we didn't have an official national anthem in the hands time that only comes in the 1930s with the star-spangled banner at this time the most popular patriotic song is columbia the gem of the ocean and so join with me now as we sing the verses of columbia the gem of the ocean oh columbia the gem of the ocean you're not singing oh well again look at the words here again the red white and blue banners make tyranny tremble an ideological aspect to american life again these banners again the country has gone through a storm but now there's victory adorning columbia and again that flag proudly floating before her the union the union forever the country's knit together again army and navy forever three cheers for the red white and blue we don't hear this song as much anymore do we john sometimes we do and the band will play it but but again it's not as popular as it was at its own time and again this really does take you back to an earlier time of american history again a sense of confidence belief in our flag well behind those sentiments there are realities of power the united states is becoming a great industrial nation and here you see a painting of the bethlehem steelworks one of the biggest steel uh plants in the world the bethlehem steel plant produces more steel than the whole all of british steel plants in the united kingdom just one factoring the united states is growing as a great industrial power already a great uh as the railroads are opening up the lands of the midwest a great agricultural power producing surpluses of grain to export around the world but also becoming a great industrial power as well at this time uh poll kennedy the Yale historian and here's a photograph of him when he was at the current strategy forum here a few years ago on the stage right here of sprue and sort of torrent in his famous classic book the rise and fall of great powers he gives measures of economic strength of the great powers and here's one of his tables uh it's about energy consumption how much energy does a country produce and consume in a year that is one measure of a country's industrial strength and what you see is that at the time of mahan's publication of the influence of sea power upon history the united states is moving past britain as the world's leading industrial power britain was the pioneer of the industrial revolution the end of the 18th in the beginning of the 19th century britain's like the boast that they were the workshop of the world well now the united states is emerging as a great industrial power on par with the workshop of the world but fast forward a bit on the eve of the first world war what you see is that the united states its economy its industry is greater than the industry of britain and germany combined before the first world war by the beginning of the 20th century over a hundred years ago the united states is already an economic superpower the united states position in the world has been undergirded by american economic strength from the beginning of the 20th century down to our own time the united states has this powerful industrial agricultural technological economy that makes it world class a world leader we don't have military forces of the first rank but we are certainly the leading economic power in the world by the time of the first world war at the same time that mehans books on the influence of sea power coming out to showcase america's industry and technology there is the great columbian exhibition of 1893 in chicago and here's a painting of this world's fair that was put on in chicago here's a photograph inside the main hall where you see american industry being trumpeted general electric westing house tesla all there all there being shown to the world the united states has emerged as an industrial giant along with britain at this time again this coincides with mehans book on the influence of sea power upon history well at this great exhibition a historian by the name of frederick jackson turner delivered a paper that is famous about the closing of the frontier in it this is a so-called closing the frontier thesis which is that from the time of columbus down to 1893 well there's been four centuries of the new world being colonized developed and a hundred years from the time of the constitution but now the frontier is gone the country's been knit together but there's no more land to expand a period of american history turner says is ending in the 1890s again it coincides the turner thesis the closing of the frontier with mehans writings on the influence of sea power upon history by the way the world recognizes that the united states is this great economic power at the time of the columbian exhibition the two leading world powers britain and france upgrade their diplomatic legations in washington to full embassies for the first time britain and france recognized the united states as an equal an equal that deserves an embassy a full embassy well the 48 what next with the closing of the frontier well mehan gives the answer whether americans want to or not they have to look outward because the united states is so strong as an economic power we're influencing the rest of the world the growing economic production of the country demands that the united states have a more global view of the world the united states is too important and of a player a player it is caught up in the whole global environment well this was a period of rising great power tensions uh and competition well what do we mean by that well the leading world power at the time was great britain the british empire uh britain rested its position in the world as a world leader rested on its economy you see a gold sovereign there with britannia the female personification of britain sitting the trident a symbol of dominance at sea in her hand an olive branch peace peace through strength and beside behind her what do you see a warship a british man of war in 1897 at the jubilee for queen victoria her yacht went by a line of battleships economic power naval power together what mehan calls sea power ruled britannia but at the beginning of the 20th century britain is being challenged by other rising great powers again here's britain's position uh at the beginning of the 20th century one quarter of the world's land mass one quarter of the world's population is governed by britain the home islands the great dominion to the north in canada when you look at the british empire it stretches from new zealand australia holdings port and holdings in shanghai hong kong singapore south asia all the way down to south africa in many ways the british empire is an indian ocean latoral empire that in population is where the center of gravity is britain is the greatest power in asia at the beginning of the 20th century well who are the rising challengers well here's a photograph that shows the two most important challengers for world power to britain theodore roosevelt and kaiser vilhelm both these avid readers of alfred thayer mahan this is a photograph taken by the kaiser's court photographer of german army maneuvers in 1910 and you see theodore roosevelt and the kaiser on horseback in conversation the kaiser's photographer took these photographs and then sent them to uh uh to president roosevelt who had just left office this is 1910 a year after he has left office in 1909 uh president roosevelt won the nobel peace prize for helping to settle the russo-japanese war of 1904 1905 a case study that we study in the intermediate level course here at the naval war college well after he left the presidency he went to europe to accept the prize but also went on a lecture tour in france and in germany while in germany the kaiser said come to my german army maneuvers in may of 1910 well here's another photograph and here's the caption vilhelm the colonel of the rough riders lecturing the chief of the german army that's the kaiser's hand by the way that he's written underneath this photograph that he sends to former president roosevelt here's another photograph you can see the black armband on the kaiser because his uncle edward the seventh had passed away today of course the funeral for queen elizabeth uh the second uh here's the caption underneath can you read that i know pity the historians we have to read the handwriting again the kaiser is fluent in english well here's what he wrote total agreement about the general maxims of life and policy between america spelled with a k and germany this is what he's writing to roosevelt but we know that this is wrong there is no total agreement about general maxims in life and policy between these two rising great powers these two rising great powers will become bitter enemies and fight two world wars against each other again mehan writing in his time about changes in power balances writing to war what he writes about is the rise of german power and the threat that this poses to britain and in the long run if germany is successful to the united states as well well mehan he was an advocate of a big navy why well the united states in his view is like britain it's an insular country it's surrounded by major bodies of water the atlantic and the pacific so it's in the interest of americans to understand the importance of the navy our position in the new world as an island state demands that we have a powerful navy to protect us again what is it what are the seas like well in a very famous passage mehan says when you look at the seas you have to think of it as one a great highway a wide common today strategists talk a great deal about the commons the maritime commons the aerospace commons information domain a great power has to dominate these domains these commons if they don't if they don't they'll be losers in war and again you have to combine your strengths in different domains to get full strategic effects again that the seas are a wide common a great highway and hence how do you get the united states the atlantic pacific can be a highway for invasion how do you come to dominate the maritime the sea common well that command of the sea equals what mehan calls an overbearing power on the sea in wartime you want to drive the enemy's flag away the enemy can appear on the seas except there's a fugitive you have such command such dominance not a hundred percent but so much that when the enemy does come out onto the seas they're only coming out as a fugitive and again controlling what he calls the great common to close that highway to your opponents that's the goal of a navy in wartime to close that highway that common to your adversary and also controlling in such a way that you can use it for whatever purposes you have in mind well from a hand to the american people it is every danger that the united states faces can be best met out there over there at sea you need to have a powerful navy to keep wars dangers as far away as you can president bush the younger he liked to say that he wanted america's wars to be away games not home games well that's what mehan is talking about as well and again a cartoon of the time now columbia garb as the statue of liberty lady liberty she's protected our hemisphere our country is protected and what is protected in a fleet of battleships first class navy that's what you need to protect yourself in this world against envious other great powers they can see that powerful navy there it will deter them from challenging you the way to protect the new world from the old is to have that powerful navy again the caption let it be written so it can be read how do you want to write it in steel firepower unpowerful fleet mehan teacher or propagandas well of course that's a false dichotomy false question he's both he is a teacher educating students here at the war college but also wider audiences the american public and leaders as well he wants to reach a wider audience and he is a propagandist in fact he's often thought to be one of the most successful propagandists that the united states has ever had arguing for a larger role for the united states in the world and also to go along with that you need to have a powerful navy if you want to be a world power you have to have a powerful navy well mehan wasn't sure the american people were ready for this and this is why he is a propagandist trying to educate the public he said that a peaceful economic gain-loving is not visionary they can't see the dangers that are out there they're content making money doing well but vision that's what's required for adequate military preparation yeah there might be no danger now but it's out there in the horizon these changing power balances can lead to war kaiser's germany is getting stronger it's building up its navy it is a threat to the existing international order again popular governments democracies we would say they're not generally favorable in peacetime however necessary democracies declare war and then prepare for war rather than prepare for war and avert or deter war mehan was a firm believer in the old roman adage that if you want peace prepare for war well one of the persons who corresponded with mehan was franklin d rooseville a young franklin d rooseville who was assistant secretary of the navy the number two civilian position in the navy during the administration of woodrow wilson franklin d rooseville wanted mehan this influential writer on policy affairs to write about the need to keep the united states fleet concentrated before the panama canal was built so roosevelt wrote to mehan and asked him to write articles about the importance of keeping the navy concentrated in peacetime to deter potential adversaries again what did roosevelt write to mehan he says your voice carries more conviction with the public and leaders than anyone else at this time this is a 1913 14 on the eve of the great war well so what what does this mean for us today what does it mean for us today these stories that mehan told about great powers fighting in the 18th and early 19th century how does that work for us today what can we learn from that from his histories of the influence of sea power well mehan is read today in china where chinese leaders officers are very much under the influence uh here's one translation of commentary on mehan the u.s benefited from what mehan's theories of sea power again the united states pushes forward moving forward at island chains expanding that strategic depth out to sea and moving into the rank the world's first powers greatest powers again if you want to be a world power great power the first rank you need a navy of the first rank as well again if you want to have influence on the global stage you'll have to have the powerful navy as well sometimes when i speak my slides are put into the passages of mehan as you can see translated into chinese characters again a wide common well robert kaplan the famous journalist author commentator in public affairs writes today the chinese they read the mehan the chinese are the mehanians now why because china's leaders want the their country to move into the first rank of world powers mehan laid out a blueprint in their eyes for the rise of american power in the world at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century its leaders internalize mehan's message china reading mehan today trying to internalize that to think about the future so what does mehan have to offer us today well that stark reality of mehan's works and the influence of sea power upon history it's troubling for us if mehan we're here today what would he say well he would say that while history doesn't repeat itself there are certain patterns of history that put the united states in china uh on a path a collision where these two powers vying for world leadership are likely to clash again that's the somber message that mehan has for us today thank you very much so my question is and this is coming from our army perspective there's a lot of focus on attendance at army war college you're pretty much not going to make full kernel if you don't attend army war college or equivalent and it's a very competitive process to attend and at least from my perspective it seems that for the navy there seems to be a lot of this bias of still wanting officers to be line officers on ships as opposed to spending time in this academic setting so i just i'm just curious from that was a big surprise growing up in the army culture where going to war college is like the pinnacle of your career and then having that exactly as you described what mehan faced a hundred years ago seems to be a somewhat of a reality today and i was just wondering kind of what your thought process on that is well it is certainly the case when you look at the second world war overwhelmingly the naval leaders that took part in the atlantic and in the pacific were all graduates in residence of the naval war college where they did war gaming but also they wrote major papers thesis on strategy and on what we would call operations and so when you look at admirals like admiral king and admiral stark that i highlighted but also nimitz sprowence sprowence was here as a student then a member of the faculty before going on to home flag command so the great leaders of the second world war were great well they studied here at the naval war college now that doesn't mean that what we did here there were flaws in the education that was here if you look at some of the war games that were played here there were wars between britain and the united states were played out here and we had war plans by the way for fighting the british empire you know i've highlighted the danger from germany and the us fighting each other but there was also the possibility in these power transitions that britain and the united states might afford each other the other thing is in the interwar period many thought we would never fight again in europe we did that in the first world war we went over there that's another song i could sing but that war didn't seem to change anything and so the naval officers here were very much like the american public writ large which is we will never fight another great war in europe so there's no need to think about how you fight submarines like we did in the first world war so so i would highlight the importance of the education here in the interwar period for creating the officer corps that were to lead the navy in the second world war and triumph to get that victory at sea so why do you think there's such a culture difference i guess today between sort of an army perspective and a navy perspective when it goes to attending the war college yeah and this culture that you talk about was something that was also evident in mehan's time when you read mehan's influence and see power upon history he talks about how naval officers don't want to study history what is it henry ford said history is bunk well that that was pretty much an attitude that navy officers had winston churchel when he took over his first lord of the admiralty he wanted to make sure that british naval officers went to a war college and they didn't want to do that over there either and in a memorable passage he says the purpose of a war college is to take captains of ships and turn them into captains of war now our the army on the other hand is more connected to thinking about operations and strategy and studying from the past and what you can learn to apply to the future whereas navies tend to be more focused on the technology ship handling so they are different cultures in that in that sense i have found by the year through the years of teaching here that the officers who often gravitate to mehan our air force officers because again it's a command of the aerospace commons you need air superiority to win your wars if you don't have air superiority your ground and naval operations won't go anywhere so that's a very mehanian message you know command the maritime commons to be able to win on land you know air force officers can take to mehan mark do you have any questions from zoom are there any other questions here in the auditory yes sir so based on mehan's book influence of sea power how do you think he would view the the industrial capacity that exists now in the united states for production of sea power sea vessels and for he would be very much concerned about what he would see as an erosion of an industrial base and the ability to produce ships of all kinds weapons in general i mean that's part of the message of the influence of sea power upon history is that the elements of sea power depend upon economic strength and in industrial age you need to have industry and so countries have to build up their industry their technological base so he would be in favor of supporting those things that enhance your ability to build technologically sophisticated weapons whether they be ships aircraft whatever so there there's an important connection there between that economic base and the ability to have military power and that in peacetime it's often not recognized how important that is and then war happens and you try to build it up quickly but what happens if the war is relatively short you're in trouble yeah he would be very concerned about that yes well i think that concludes our discussion if you'd like to be out in the parking lot at the end of the event here we're going to be selling john mower's greatest hits uh where he will sing all of those songs he wanted to break into today yes thank you john uh let's hear it uh for our wonderful speaker