ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the radical doctrinal and technological change that occurred within the US Navy at the turn of the 20th century. During this time period, the United States shifted away from a doctrine predicated on coastal defense and commerce raiding, toward a sea control vision of sea power most prominently articulated by Alfred Thayer Mahan. Importantly, this chapter shows that following the Spanish-American War, the United States refused to deviate from advocating the principle of freedom of the seas defined as the immunity of all private property on the high seas from seizure. This chapter documents how Alfred Thayer Mahan personally, and repeatedly, tried to get the United States to abandon the principle of freedom of the seas. This chapter shows that although Mahan personally urged President Theodore Roosevelt to abandon the immunity principle, President Roosevelt refused. While freedom of the seas discourse played a less prominent role in the affairs of this time period, this chapter shows how the discourse remained constant in the face of enormous material, technological, and doctrinal change. Because of this, this chapter plays an important role in separating this genealogical discourse analysis from purely material, realist, account of US foreign policy.
