Guide to the Career and Work of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan - Covering American Naval Strategy, Mahanian Doctrine, Influence of Sea Power on History, Maritime Power, World War I, and Nuclear Age

Book excerpt: This unique book reproduces thirteen important government documents, reports, and studies dealing with the career and work of naval pioneer and strategist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. Documents include: Mahan's Influence on United States Naval Strategy Through 1918 * Maritime Power: Some Observations on Strategy, Tactics and Technology * Vision to Victory - Space, Mahan, and Mitchell: The Role of the Visionary in Cross-Organizational Innovation * Evolution of Maritime Strategy - Is Sea Power 21 the Answer? * The Relevance of Mahanian Theory in the Nuclear Age * Mahan and Corbett on Maritime Strategy * United States Military Theorists: A Study of Patrons and Interests * Mahan for the Twenty First Century: His Principles Still Apply to National Power * Beyond Mahan: A Proposal for a U.S. Naval Strategy in the Twenty-First Century * Mahan Goes to War: Effects of World War I on the U.S. Navy's Force Structure and Operational Planning * The Influence of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan Upon the United States Navy Through the United States Naval Institute's Proceedings * The Idea of a "Fleet in Being" in Historical Perspective * The Legacy of Mahan for the 21st Century Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan retired from the United States Navy on 17 November 1896, following forty years of active service. He became an accomplished writer on the subject of naval strategy during his period of naval service. In 1890 Mahan received international acclaim for his literary efforts and thereafter was acknowledged within his own country to be an expert on naval matters. Admiral Mahan was not a creator of naval strategy. Rather he will be remembered for his unique ability to extract from a study of history those recurring factors, which when put in context, form a basis for sound naval strategy, Throughout his writing Mahan stressed the historical lessons of command of the seas, concentration of force, control by blockade, and politics through power. Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783. In the chapters that followed and on the pages which comprise his nineteen other major works. Admiral Mahan unfolds the history of naval warfare, strategy, policy, and tactics as it relates to the growth of some and to the decay of other national empires. Numerous authors agree that Mahan's works became the "bible" from which nations justified strong navies, trained naval officers, and based their aspirations for world power and domination. Notable among Mahan's avid disciples were leaders of Germany, France, Great Britain, Japan and, finally, the United States. It is generally accepted that Alfred Thayer Mahan was the first prominent historian to articulate the role of sea power as a basis for national policy. Less accepted, however, is Mahan's relevance today in light of the vast technological changes which have clearly modified the employment of seapower since he conducted his review of seventeenth and eighteenth century military - and especially, British naval history. The most elegant statement of Mahan's continued relevance in the face of such far reaching developments as nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and missile and space technology is that sea power as an element of national power has not disappeared in the nuclear age as many predicted. Moreover, it has remained such an important element that a new sea power emerged in the form of the Soviet Union. As elegantly simple as the observation is, to ignore the differences in twentieth century sea power wrought by technological developments does disservice to Mahan's overarching 'staying power" - and ignores some important qualifiers on significant portions of Mahanian theory.