US Naval Strategy and national security: the evolution of American maritime power

摘要

"Navigare necesse est... "goes the Latin translation of the originally Greek maxim of Plutarch that was so often quoted throughout history when maritime efforts of any nation needed to be reasoned. Obviously not Pompey's order to his seamen provided the inspiration to the Framers when, drawing up the US Constitution they made sure the young American Republic had a standing navy but not an army. Most probably it was clear after the War of Independence that the future of the "island nation" should be very closely related to the sea both militarily and commercially. Just as it proved to be the case after, a hundred years later, in the twentieth century, and most probably will be in the twenty-first.