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"From one of the most admired admirals of his generation -- and the only admiral to serve as Supreme Allied Commander at NATO -- comes a remarkable voyage through all of the world's most important bodies of water, providing the story of naval power as a driver of human history and a crucial element in our current geopolitical path. From the time of the Greeks and the Persians clashing in the Mediterranean, sea power has determined world power. To an extent that is often underappreciated, it still does. No one understands this better than Admiral Jim Stavridis. In Sea Power, Admiral Stavridis takes us with him on a tour of the world's oceans from the admiral's chair, showing us how the geography of the oceans has shaped the destiny of nations, and how naval power has in a real sense made the world we live in today, and will shape the world we live in tomorrow. Not least, Sea Power is marvelous naval history, giving us fresh insight into great naval engagements from the battles of Salamis and Lepanto through to Trafalgar, the Battle of the Atlantic, and submarine conflicts of the Cold War. It is also a keen-eyed reckoning with the likely sites of our next major naval conflicts, particularly the Arctic Ocean, Eastern Mediterranean, and the South China Sea. Finally, Sea Power steps back to take a holistic view of the plagues to our oceans that are best seen that way, from piracy to pollution. When most of us look at a globe, we focus on the shape of the of the seven continents. Admiral Stavridis sees the shapes of the seven seas. After reading Sea Power, you will too. Not since Alfred Thayer Mahan's legendary The Influence of Sea Power upon History have we had such a powerful reckoning with this vital subject"--… (more)
User reviews
As with all wise history teachers, he uses the lessons of the past to illuminate our current path. "The weakness of the Qing dynasty was an aberration in the long history of Chinese domination in the South China Sea, as Deng Xiaoping was said to have told Henry Kissinger, China is a great civilization that has had a couple bad centuries. That weakness, so apparent in the twentieth century in particular, is outside the norm, and current events in the South China Sea show that the pendulum is swinging back strongly"With these words we know that Stavridis isn’t talking about some ancient king or even the Nixon presidency but about the China that we face today. The book is timely enough to include his assessment of the new president and on more than one occasion he counsels a more considered, less hyperbolic approach to the issues that face us.
Bottom line: I’m a sucker for anything related to the sea and those who sail upon it so I jumped on this book when asked to review it. While I enjoyed it, I think the content was a bit too basic in that it neglected some of the bigger themes such as how man’s mastery of the sea shifted the center of the commercial and intellectual world from the east with its silk roads to the west. On the upside, his recommendations provide a good framework for achieving peace and security by combining active negotiations such as the Iranian Arms Treaty with defensive security programs such as THAAD and AEGIS missile defense systems
For the sake of expedience, I chose to listen to the audio version of Adm. Stavridis’ book. Marc Cashman is a talented reader and has a pleasant voice but he exhibits an ignorance of the proper pronunciation of nautical terms such as ‘forecastle’ and ‘letters of marque’ that I found jarring, especially since much of the book is written by Stavridis in the first person. Whenever this happened I would be momentarily shocked to think that an admiral wouldn’t know how to pronounce such words.
*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.
FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.
With regards to the current politics, Admiral Stavridis comes across as a very moderate figure, praising and criticizing both American parties (something I am certain he was very careful to do). But clearly he wants a more robust American navy and presence around the world with strong alliances, and I don't think he'll convince anyone opposed to those ideas that they are correct, but might convince some people on the fence. He makes a strong case that the current world order requires strong investment in both hard and soft power, and American power has many threats from state and non-state actors, but is not something that it outside of America's capabilities to deal with. Further the seas are seeing tremendous ecological damage which requires a global effort he encourages strongly, but also is realistic enough to recognize that if the Artic ice shrinks for example, America needs to take advantage of it.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it's one which with every year will get increasingly out of date and ideally would be updated regularly.