Free Republic

Freepers I am turning to you all for assistance in preparing a class lecture on the importance of Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History". Specifically I was hoping one of you well read Freepers can direct me to a good, excerpt or summary of Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History". Something I can hand out in class. I have read his many articles but none of them seem to cover the major points of his theories succinctly. So I am wondering now if there is a good excerpt of his major work that you all could...

Back to Flashpoints Building Navies Fast By James R. Holmes January 24, 2011 Underestimating the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is a matter of course for many Asia specialists in the West, as senior US military officials concede. Some reasons given for overlooking China’s naval potential are specific to China. Also commonplace, however, is the claim that a great Chinese fleet won’t take to the sea anytime soon simply because it takes so long to build one. Typical of the genre: writing last year, George Friedman of the private intelligence firm Stratfor maintained that China possessed only: ‘a weak navy...

Over lunch at the Four Seasons during a hectic week in New York, a former secretary of the Navy, John Lehman, shared his alarm about America's security. "We're building only five ships a year; we're on the way to a 150-ship Navy" he says. In his view, that is courting disaster. "That is not enough to cover our security requirements," he says. "Seventy-percent of the world is covered by water. We no longer have basing rights around the world. If you have combat operations going on you need air cover and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week,...

Food for thought. Iran Is Not Winning. It Is Unraveling. The prevailing narrative on Iran has it almost perfectly reversed. We are told that Tehran is winning a war of wills in the Gulf and that Donald Trump is gambling recklessly with the world’s most sensitive chokepoint. In reality, Iran is not consolidating strength; it is managing decline. And Trump’s play on the Strait of Hormuz has quietly forced energy markets to reprice security—tilting the balance decisively toward the Americas, and away from Europe, Asia and China. The Islamic Republic no longer resembles a confident revolutionary project. With the old...

Mahan, Malabar and China By Rahul K Bhonsle China's quest for great nationhood passes through the waters of the Indian Ocean. Chinese strategists have perhaps concluded that the rise of great nations is determined by the size of their navies. As China seeks to rise to greater glories, a Navy is assuming increasing importance for Beijing. Moreover, an economy, which is dependent on inward flow of raw materials including oil and gas and the outward transportation of goods by sea, cannot neglect the oceans. China's wealth is concentrated on the Western coast, thus it has to ensure that this is...