Sea Power – Mahan to Stavridis 'Top 3'

Review by Bill Doughty

The venerated grandfather or "high priest" of modern naval strategy, Rear Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), foresaw the future of a strong navy as a preeminent force for peace and prosperity.

His "modern" navy called for new coaling stations (such as Pearl Harbor at the turn of the last century), a "canal route through the Central-American Isthmus," and a realization that the sea is a "great highway; or better, a wide common over which men may pass in all directions on trade routes for commerce."

Adm. (ret.) Jim Stavridis's "Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans" (Penguin Press, 2017) is written in tribute to a history class of the same name taught by E. B. "Ned" Potter of the United States Naval Academy, centered on the teachings of Mahan. Stavridis writes:

"The basic theory of Mahan's body of work is that national power derives from engagement via the world's ocean along three key vectors: production (which leads to the need for international trade and commerce), shipping (both merchant and naval), and colonies and alliances (spread across the globe, forming a network of bases from which to project sea power). All three of these basic concepts still pertain today, although they need a bit of updating..."

Sailors aboard USS Mahan (DDG 72) conduct line handling May 23, 2017. (MC1 Tim Comerford)

Mahan saw a tough navy as an antidote to war. He recognized the importance of commerce by the seas in a globally connected world. In Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History"(1890), the so-called high priest of maritime strategy cited the French, under Richeleu's protege Minister Colbert, as inspiration. Colbert embraced the three pillars of production, shipping and colonies/markets – "in a word, sea power," according to Mahan.

The world has changed since Mahan's time in ways he could not imagine. Now people understand that there are limits to growth. There are finite non-renewable resources on the planet; renewable resources must be protected. The world is no longer dominated by imperialist colonialism, though some countries, notably China and Russia, still practice revanchism.

Global shipping traffic in 2012.

Stavridis takes us on a personal career-spanning voyage to the world's most important oceans and seas, including the Pacific, "mother of all the oceans" explored by Magellan and Cook and the Atlantic, "cradle of colonization." By the end of his book the personal becomes universal.
He shares advice on various topics, including how to deal with China in the South China Sea, North Korea in the western Pacific and Sea of Japan, Russia in the Arctic and Mediterranean, and radical extremists such as ISIS wherever they appear. Stavridis also examines the world's oceans as a connected common system:

"And it is a busy system indeed. On any given day, it is impossible to accurately measure the number of surface ships at sea, but we can approximate the number of ships generally. By reading through a variety of sources (including Clarksons, the 'bible' of international shipping), it is possible to estimate that there are between fifty and sixty thousand large commercial ships, chemical ships, passenger and roll-on/roll-off ships, and liquified natural gas tankers active throughout the world ... By some estimates there are four to six times more ships plying the world's oceans than there were some thirty years ago."

While the world has learned much about our common and connecting ocean in the past 3,000 years, there are many things we still do not know, "especially about how the oceans function as a coherent system. In a certain sense," Stavridis writes, "we have incredible knowledge of the oceans, but little wisdom about them."

Like Mahan, Stavridis wisely focuses on a top-three – in his case a top-three of threats to the oceans, referred to as "the outlaw sea": piracy, overfishing crimes and environmental damage.

"Piracy and fishing are sadly very significant sources of illegal activity at sea. But the biggest act of criminal behavior being practiced on the high seas is the willful and preventable damage to the environment that goes on every day. Through the destruction of the maritime world, we are literally watching future generations robbed of their birthright. This is stealing from us all, until and unless we can work coherently together to preserve the riches of the sea for mankind's future. This was a guiding premise in the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea three decades ago, but sadly the treaty has not had a sufficient effect on the damage that is unfolding before our eyes."

What are we to do? "At the heart of any approach to the challenges of the outlaw sea is the creation of an enhanced level of international cooperation." The oceans, Stavridis points out, are not a vast, invulnerable dumping ground and an endless source of protein."

A U.S. Coast Guard member prepares to embark an 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boat in preparation for boarding and inspecting commercial fishing vessels as part of Coast Guard’s efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Pacific during an Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) boarding mission. The LEDET is embarked aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47), deployed in fall of 2017 in support of the Oceana Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI), leveraging Department of Defense assets transiting the region to increase the Coast Guard’s maritime domain awareness and supporting its maritime law enforcement operations in Oceania. (Photo By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kryzentia Weiermann)

With wisdom, nations and sea services take a stand. A bonus at the end of this enjoyable book is this found haiku:

where we stand on a

narrow hull, rolling before

the waves and the wind

"The United States continues on a voyage that is both personal and of vital geopolitical importance," Stavridis writes, "... knowing we are at heart a nation that will forever depend on sea power and our sailors for security and prosperity.