Military Monday with Lt Commander Benjamin Armstrong

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has staggered from crisis to crisis, seemingly with no plan on how to exist and prosper in the 21st century. Many see America's disorganized stumbling into the new millennium, as being caused by the absence of a genuine national strategy. The U.S. Cold War strategy of containment of the Soviet Union and Communist bloc may have been heavy-handed and obvious, but it worked. This is in stark contrast to America's national strategies of the 20th century.

 Over a century ago, a visionary naval officer and author, Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan, USN, wrote the first great American book on strategy, The Influence of Seapower Upon History. The book, which became a runaway international bestseller, laid out the tenets of modern seapower based upon historic case studies and a far-reaching look to the future of navies. Politicians and military professionals, from Theodore Roosevelt in the U.S., to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, used Mahan's book as a roadmap to create navies and strategies of their nown. A century later, it is perhaps time that we go back and give Mahan another look.

 To better understand America's need for a national strategy, and how the ideas of Alfred Thayer Mahan might guide us towards such a strategy, join military historian, author and journalist John D. Gresham for Military Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern. His guest this week will be U.S. Naval Institute Press author and naval officer Lieut. Cmdr. Benjamin F. Armstrong, USN. Lieut. Cmdr. Armstrong is the author of the book, 21st Century Mahan, which explores how. Mahan's ideas might help America find its way in the 21st century. Listeners are encouraged to call in, and offer questions and opinions to Mr. Gresham and Lieut. Cmdr. Armstrong. This will be a lively and interesting hour, offering genuine insights into America's future in the years ahead.