THEODORE ROOSEVELT

CENTER FOR SEA POWER STUDIES

291 Wood Road • Annapolis, MD 21402

Overview

The Theodore Roosevelt Center for Sea Power Studies is the

research, studies and analysis arm of the U.S. Naval
Institute. It is named for the president who first put America
on the pathway to becoming a global sea power. “A good
Navy is not a provocation to war,” President Roosevelt told
the Congress in 1902, “It is the surest guaranty of peace.”
The focus of the TR Center is to carry on, in the modern
day, President Roosevelt’s tireless effort to expand
understanding and awareness of the necessity for the United
States to be a global sea power.

The U.S. Naval Institute

Founded in 1873, the U.S. Naval Institute is an independent forum advocating the
necessity of global sea power for national security and economic prosperity. It is
dedicated to fostering the exchange of ideas, supporting the professional development of
Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, and in honoring those who have served our
great nation.

History has shown that a strong defense requires a continuous infusion of new ideas.
We offer an independent, non-partisan venue for those ideas – a unique, independent
forum for officer and enlisted professionals, civilian policymakers, and interested U.S.
and international citizens alike to expand their knowledge, express their thoughts, share
their ideas, and challenge the conventional wisdom in an environment where all may
dare to read, think, speak and write.

The Institute gives the opportunity to influence the direction of our nation, not based
upon rank or title, but instead through the power of these independent ideas. The
platforms provided by the Institute for sharing these ideas include our magazines
Proceedings and Naval History, Institute-hosted seminars and conferences, book
publishing by the Naval Institute Press, and an award-winning web site and blog.
Through these highly visible and widely read communication vehicles, we offer the
opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with national security decision-makers.

Indeed, the Institute was a think tank for national security issues long before “think
tank” became a noun.

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The Challenge: Why Now?

First, the culture of the sea services has changed over the years in a way that we have
found discourages the free expression of ideas, especially if those ideas are coming from
the more junior active-duty officers and enlisted personnel. Where once active duty
Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen felt comfortable offering new and differing
views about the future of the maritime services in the pages of Proceedings, our
experience is that today’s generation of sea service professionals is less likely to openly
challenge the conventional wisdom, the status quo, or the views of their seniors.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ 2010 remarks to the Naval Academy Brigade of
Midshipmen advocating professional officers “overcoming conventional wisdom and
the bureaucratic obstacles thrown in one’s path; and about candor and speaking truth to
power” indicate he is more than aware of this challenge.

Second, the Sea Services and their role in national security are ten years mired in the
shadows as the nation fights terrorists on land. The Maritime Strategy presented in
2009 was DOA, damned with faint praise from former Navy Secretary John Lehman in
the pages of Proceedings. Today, the Navy has no strong voice for global sea power,
the Marines are under fire as a 2nd land army, and the Coast Guard is the only service
suffering from a reduction in funding at the very time the service’s assets are mobilized
to fight the BP oil disaster. The Sea Services are challenged more than at any time since
cancelling the super carrier USS United States prompted the Revolt of the Admirals.
Where are the Mahans, the Burkes, the Ellis’ who will show us the way to the future?

With this clearly in mind, the Institute can no longer fulfill its role as the Independent
Forum of the Sea Services relying solely on voluntary submissions by those willing to
stick their head up and draw attention to themselves at possible risk to their career. The
Institute must broaden participation and develop additional voices to fuel the dialogue
on key national security issues.

It is not as if we did not have a history of ringing the bell on sea power issues.

Consider that the Institute’s flagship periodical – Proceedings – has been published
since 1874. It its first issue, Captain Stephen B. Luce presented “The Manning of our
Navy and Mercantile Fleet,” meeting head-on the issue of charting a course for the
nation’s maritime interests. Captain Luce’s argument for apprentice training in the
Navy and Merchant Marine was so strong that as the lead article in Volume I of
Proceedings, it led to Congressional legislation in favor of Merchant Marine Training
and a naval apprentice program.

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In 1912, just seven years after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Lieutenant
Chester W. Nimitz published his first Proceedings article on the “Military Value and
Tactics of Modern Submarines,” having just commanded the submarines Plunger,
Snapper, and Narwhal. The future Fleet Admiral believed strongly in the submarine as
a modern weapon of war and, among other proposals, spoke out strongly for diesel
power in submarines as the fumes from gasoline engines had a terrible effect on his
Sailors.

Down through the years, the Institute and Proceedings have also been at the heart of
strengthening international partnerships and building cooperation with the navies of
allies and friends overseas. In 1951, when Rear Admiral Arleigh Burke had command
of Cruiser Division Five operating off Korea, he visited the Republic of Korea’s young
Naval Academy. Finding no library and almost no textbooks, he wrote an article titled
“Books for Korea,” published in the June 1951 Proceedings. The response from
Institute members, U.S. colleges and universities, and others across the nation was
immediate and tremendous. More than 20,000 books were soon on their way to Korea.

Since 1992, Proceedings has devoted an annual issue to international navies. In 2009,
the heads of 37 navies participated writing on the challenges of piracy and other key
issues of the moment. Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the Royal Navy's Chief of Staff
wrote: “The most significant maritime security threat facing the United Kingdom is
complacency that flows from ignorance about the importance of the sea. Sea blindness
is endemic in the U.K. and across the western world and leads to a lack of appreciation
of the full extent of maritime threats to global security, which could be allowed to
develop if left unchecked.”

The Naval Institute today plays a far-reaching role in guarding against “sea blindness.”

Former Commandant of the Coast Guard and Chairman of the Naval Institute Board
Admiral James Loy observed, “The Naval Institute should jealously guard its role as
prodder, conscience, and constructive safe haven for ideas that keep pushing the
establishment.”

Our Answer – The Theodore Roosevelt Center for Sea Power Studies

In response, The Institute will expand greatly its historic role as an independent forum,
moving from a reactive to a proactive engagement strategy. In July 2010, the Board of
Directors embraced that approach, voting to change the mission of the Institute to:

The U.S. Naval Institute is an independent forum

advocating the necessity of global sea power
for national security and economic prosperity.

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To bring that revised mission to life, the Institute will launch the TR Center – selecting
Fellows with deep expertise on sea power, the sea services, and national defense. The
Fellows, central to the Institute’s mission, will heighten the Institute’s role and
professional contributions: advancing independent ideas, informing, educating, and
engaging military leaders and policy makers through their research, writings, postings,
publications and participation in conferences. The Fellows will grapple with the
toughest issues of our times, determined to contribute to the dialogue on the necessity of
global sea power to the national security and economic prosperity of our nation.

The TR Center will:

 Gather the most creative and well-respected sea power strategists in the world –
to address the necessity of global sea power for national security and economic
prosperity in all forms of media.

 Publish special reports on important defense and sea power issues, as well as
papers showcasing new ideas on all facets of sea power and national security.

 Lead special seminars around the country, focusing on the necessity of global sea
power to meet national security needs in the world today and tomorrow.

 Organize small, expert-based dialogues among the nation's more creative and
well-respected sea power thinkers.

 Initiate a broader discussion of sea power through professional relationships with

military educational institutions and civilian universities.

 Encourage thoughtful participation in the development of national security

strategy and policy, and in the allocation of scarce human and capital resources.

 Provide a steady flow of scholarship and original research that tests the bounds
of conventional wisdom.

 Increase the Institute’s visibility and professional contributions within the

national security dialogue.

 Foster critical innovative thinking on the central, enduring role of sea power in
the nation’s defense.

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The TR Center Chairs

A signal part of the TR Center effort will be to designate Chairs for Senior Fellows and
Adjunct Fellows dedicated to icons of these naval warfare specialties. Salient among
these potential chairs will be:

 The Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan Chair of Naval Strategy Studies
 The Admiral Hyman G. Rickover Chair of Naval Shipbuilding Studies
 The Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood Chair of Submarine Studies
 Vice Admiral John H. Towers Chair of Naval Aviation Studies
 The Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Chair of Naval Intelligence Studies
 The Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak Chair of Naval Expeditionary Studies
 The Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper Chair of Naval Cyber Warfare Studies
 The Captain Joshua James Chair of National Maritime Security Studies

Why the President Theodore Roosevelt Center?

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was an historian, a
biographer, a statesman, a hunter, a naturalist, and an orator. His prodigious literary
output includes twenty-six books, over a thousand magazine articles, thousands of
speeches and letters. He was first and always a champion of those who served in the
military.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough
to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and
less than that no man shall have.
~ Roosevelt speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903

In 1897, Roosevelt joined President McKinley's administration as assistant secretary of

the Navy. During the Spanish-American War, Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt
commanded the Rough Rider Regiment, leading a charge at the battle of San Juan Hill
for which he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001. He was one of
the most conspicuous heroes of that war.

With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43,
became the youngest President in the nation's history. He brought new excitement and
power to the presidency, as he vigorously led Congress and the American public toward
progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy.

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He took the view that the president as a "steward of the people" should take whatever
action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the
Constitution." I did not usurp power," he wrote, "but I did greatly broaden the use of
executive power." He also steered the United States more actively into world politics.
He liked to quote a favorite proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick…"

Aware of the strategic need for a

shortcut between the Atlantic and
Pacific, Roosevelt ensured the
construction of the Panama Canal. His
corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
prevented the establishment of foreign
bases in the Caribbean and arrogated the
sole right of intervention in Latin
America to the United States.

Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize

for mediating the Russo-Japanese War,
reached a gentleman's agreement on
immigration with Japan, and sent the
Great White Fleet on a goodwill tour of
the world. He remains the “founding
father” and first advocate of U.S. global
sea power for national security and
economic prosperity.

The Independent Forum of the Sea Services