Grand Strategy and Sea Power.

• Author: Sempa, Francis P.

Grand Strategy and Sea Power

By Naval War College Current Strategy Forum Speakers

Videos: http: https://www.youtube.com/user/usnavalwarcollege

On June 17-18, 2014, the U.S. Naval War College hosted its 65th annual Current Strategy Forum at the Spruance Auditorium with the theme of "American Grand Strategy and Seapower: Challenges and Choices." I was privileged to be an invited guest at the two-day event in Newport, Rhode Island. Keynote speakers at the event included Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert; Sir Lawrence Freedman of King's College in London; acclaimed author and geopolitical theorist Robert D. Kaplan; Dr. Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution; and Professor Geoffrey Till on King's College.

Panelists who participated included Dr. Hal Brands of Duke University; Dr. Aaron Friedberg of Princeton University; Dr. John Maurer of the Naval War College; Dr. Paul Bracken of Yale University; Dr. Andrea Dew of the Naval War College; Dr. Emily Goldman of U.S. Cyber Command; Vice Admiral John P. Currier of the U.S. Coast Guard; Frank Hoffman of the National Defense University; Retired Vice Admiral John Morgan; and Dr. Kori Schake of Stanford University.

The speakers identified current and future geopolitical challenges to U.S. global predominance, including the rise of China, Russian assertiveness in eastern Europe; the so-called Arab Spring; non-state terrorist organizations; political division at home; fiscal restraints on the defense budget; and the lack of an effective U.S. grand strategy. There was also considerable discussion of the need to meld strategy with operations at sea.

Several of the speakers and panelists debated whether China needs to be engaged or contained. The...