Our annual International Navies issue is an antidote to the congenital American fixation with our own country to the exclusion of the ideas and opinions of other nations. Each March we open our pages to the CNOs (or equivalent) of the world's navies and asked them to respond to a question that we put to them. This year it relates to the new maritime strategy that our CNO, Admiral Mike Mullen, has ordered up.
If there was a consistent theme among the responses, it was this: The U.S. Navy cannot go it alone. Some navy chiefs said this directly, others left it unsaid, but it's easily gleaned from their comments. All the navies, especially the smaller ones, are asking for full partnership. They define what they can bring to the table, filling gaps or weaknesses in the U.S. Navy's capabilities.
In writing of regional littorals, for example, Colombia's CNO said that the knowledge base of local navies, even small ones, "is significant, and they have much to teach in these matters." Norway echoed this point and offered specifics. Comments are provocative across the board.
Once again Eric Wertheim serves up his yearly review of the world's navies. These thumbnail sketches will whet the appetites of our more ambitious readers for Eric's massive new work, The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, 15th Edition, available from our own Naval Institute Press this month.
This issue of Proceedings contains an abundance of riches. Otto Kreisher chronicles the Coast Guard's Deepwater controversy, while the current Program Executive Officer, Rear Admiral Gary Blore, attempts to put the situation in context. We are also pleased to have a contribution from Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen discussing his priorities.
Thanks to a fine piece by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carl T. Hall, we look at another controversy, the decision by the school board of Tony Bennett's favorite city to eliminate the JROTC program after 91 years. You may be surprised by some of the politicians protesting that decision. A hint on one: Both her father and her brother were mayors of Baltimore.
The West 2007 Conference and Exposition, jointly sponsored by the Naval Institute and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, was a resounding success, thanks to thoughtful, tuned-in, and motivated participants. Held in San Diego a few weeks ago, the conference was kicked off by a rousing speech from Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Alternately serious and funny, but always engaging, Mr. Giuliani spoke of the minutes immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, offered some lessons on leadership, and reiterated his previously declared support for President Bush's 21,500-troop "surge" strategy in Iraq.
"Swords and Diplomacy: How Do We Build the Right Military to Fight, Win, and Influence?" was the theme of the three-day event. There were reports from the battlefield, acquisition advice from the Pentagon, a look at ways to retain seasoned enlisted professionals, and a host of other issues of interest to the national security community. If you missed the conference, you can read about it in the dispatch provided by Ray Kipp, a onetime sergeant in the Marine Corps who fell from grace and became a Washington correspondent and national editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
One highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to meet and spend some time with Army Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl, Iraq combat veteran, Rhodes scholar, and author of an acclaimed book, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam. He spoke to the conferees on the new Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, to which he contributed.
Another highlight was the chance to chat briefly with Admiral James Stavridis, who delivered a well-received luncheon address that focused on his current assignment as Commander, U.S. Southern Command.
Admiral Stavridis is legendary around the Naval Institute, the embodiment of all that is good by virtue of having written for Proceedings at every rank, starting with his first class year at the U.S. Naval Academy.
He has done it all for us, everything from book reviews to major feature articles to talent spotting. In San Diego, I asked him if he would write a piece on the Southern Command. "Sure," he said. "I'd love to. I'm going to be traveling for the next couple of days, I'll write it on the plane."
If Jim Stavridis didn't exist, Proceedings would have to invent him.
Editor's Page
Robert Timberg