Such are the consequences of deliberately forgetting permanent verities.

Sixties types had to undertake a great relearning of what past generations knew so well. Today’s U.S. sea services need to emulate yesterday’s hippies. Naval overseers have made a start. They accept that they have a problem. Despite past delusions, they now acknowledge that China has built itself into a rival of consequence. America does not rule the waves by right. They concede that numbers of ships, planes, and munitions matter, that the nation needs industrial infrastructure sufficient to manufacture these implements in bulk, and that U.S. forces could be outclassed by foes fighting on their home ground. They admit that logistics is critical, and that any savvy antagonist will go after the U.S. armed forces’ ability to resupply units warring thousands of miles from home.

And on and on.

Candor with yourself is admirable. But it’s one thing to admit you have a problem, quite another to compel internal change necessary to solve it. The challenge before the inbound administration is to impose a cultural turnabout on big bureaucratic institutions set in their ways. The sea services have a sense of entitlement; they need to see themselves as the weaker combatant. Such cultural revolutions demand determined leadership. That’s how the officialdom can amplify the potency of U.S. maritime strategy. The administration should rivet its attention on Asia while remaking the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard to outcompete China.

So there’s my counsel. Get your minds right—and give the services no rest.

About the Author: Dr. James Holmes, U.S. Naval War College 

Dr. James Holmes is J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and a Distinguished Fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare, Marine Corps University. The views voiced here are his alone.

Image Credit: Creative Commons.