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Can? Alfred Thayer Mahan's logistics satisfy contemporary needs in the Caribbean or, more pointedly, in the Persian Gulf?
The seeds of this essay sprouted in 1948, when a history syllabus at the U.S. Naval Academy rediscovered Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American recognized as a world-class student of naval practice. About a century ago, Mahan began an analytical process based on the axiom logistics dominate war.1 Our 1948 syllabus worked toward that climax by starting from his preliminary thesis, that solid seapower evolves from some nation's need for free use of seaways.2 As a realistic test, it encouraged midshipmen to discover whether Russia's need for overseas resources and markets would turn her toward true seapower.3
Back in 1948 Mahan seemed an outsider. The son of a West Point professor who had studied in France under Jomini,4 Alfred Mahan entered the Naval Academy as a thirdclassman. He graduated in 1859, without benefit of a Plebe Year. A reserved man, even for the 19th century, he proved an indifferent seaman whom his seniors considered a plodder. Called in raiddie life as president of the prospective Naval War College,5 Mahan developed a remarkable set of lectures, applying 18th century evidence from the age of sail to what he envisioned as 20th century naval problems. Though they left his students cold, the lectures won international acclaim when published as a book. Mahan produced seven more analytical volumes, capped in 1911 by a retrospective survey, Naval Strategy. Along the way, magazine articles about naval policy won him fame, but even those years as a respected elder statesman earned no more than lip service for Mahan's professional work. By 1910 academic historians rejected him as too subjective. Peers in the Service considered him a maverick, because "real" officers didn't write books. Zealous younger officers saw him as a has-been who advocated balanced force at the expense of high-cost battleships.
Today, Alfred Mahan's 19th century prose sounds sluggish. Yet careful reading of his professional work reveals a thorough student of Jomini, as well as a lucid analyst appalled by the practice of fighting today's battle with the mere promise of tomorrow's weapon.7 In my own case, outlining his analyses produced a useful checklist. It enabled an inexperienced academician to hold his...