Why the world needs a strong US navy
By Miles Smith March 31, 2023 06:23 AM
In 1892, Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan, a lecturer at the Naval War College, published his opus, The Influence of Sea Power upon History. The work made him famous. More importantly, it showed the rest of the world that the United States was committed to using naval muscle to claim its place among the world’s great powers.
For Mahan, the history of sea power was largely “a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war.” In order to “secure to one's own people a disproportionate share,” Mahan wrote, “every effort was made to exclude others, either by the peaceful legislative methods of monopoly or prohibitory regulations, or, when these failed, by direct violence.”
America’s earliest political leaders understood that the fortunes of the young republic were tied to the sea, even if some of them — most notably Thomas Jefferson — didn’t admit that until much later.
For nearly 200 years, the relationship between American power, American industry, and the U.S. Navy has been understood as vital to maintaining American economic prosperity and preserving the United States's preeminent place among great powers. Former President Theodore Roosevelt inaugurated an era of U.S. naval power at a time when the Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy battled for supremacy on the high seas.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/why-the-world-needs-a-strong-us-navy
