Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans

Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, summons the collected knowledge of his extensive career as an operational commander to provide insight into navies’ routine functioning. He structures his case studies of maritime warfare according to applied naval tactics and strategy, and an analysis of “the influence of the sea on geopolitics” from a naval perspective—the oceans’ physical characteristics and their strategic impacts on “the vast water world we call earth”—sits at the work’s core. The Pacific remains a site of both ambition and communication, with corresponding possibilities for “an explosive war.” The Atlantic, for the first time in its history, is now “a zone of cooperation and peace.” The Indian Ocean and its Arabian satellite are ringed with potential flashpoints. War at sea began in the “unrelenting arena” of the Mediterranean, which retains its potential for violence. Stavridis finds its counterpart in the South China Sea, a relative newcomer to maritime geopolitics but a near-certain “maritime hinge” of the 21st century. He also outlines the roles played by the Caribbean Sea and Arctic Ocean. It’s a stimulating and provocative work, and Stavridis’s chapter on the “outlaw sea” is a timely reminder that oceans may seemed tamed—but that’s only true on the surface. [em]Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (June) [/em]