Leverage of Sea Power

The president of the National Institute for Public Policy argues forcefully that maintaining a strong navy is the best way to win wars. Tracing the historical pattern from antiquity to the present, defense analyst Gray offers historical case studies including the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, Rome's battles against Carthage, the rise and fall of Venice and England's wars with France. Turning to the modern era, he demonstrates the decisive role sea power played in both world wars and in the Cold War. In Gray's view, recent technological, economic, military and political changes in no way diminish the strategic leverage of sea power, which he considers the ``timeless midwife of victory.'' Although the U.S. Navy is presently shifting its principal focus from control of the high seas to shoreline tactics, Gray predicts that U.S. control of the seven seas is unlikely to be disputed for years to come. (Nov.)