James Holmes

Author Archive

  • May 10, 2025
    One hopes that Russian and Chinese capability and malevolence have landed a hard enough knock to induce Congress and the White House to persevere with a naval renaissance.  
  • Apr 16, 2025
    Stakeholders in the maritime enterprise must think in grand Mahanian terms about rejuvenating U.S. sea power. Trump’s new executive order charts a path forward—but...
  • Apr 11, 2025
    The U.S. Navy can learn much from the Russo-Japanese War—and from dueling interpretations of that conflict by naval theorists Alfred Thayer Mahan and Julian S. Corbett.  
  • Mar 25, 2025
    Control represents the prime goal of military strategy, and air bombardment—no matter how relentless—cannot replace the power of boots on the ground.  
  • Mar 15, 2025
    A measured, relentless advance applies political pressure. The more destruction looms, the more intense the pressure.  
  • Mar 4, 2025
    What lawmakers are contemplating is a letter of marque that bestows the authority to execute an open-ended maritime campaign under supervision from Washington.  
  • Mar 3, 2025
    Mounting a standing presence in America’s backyard could pay handsome returns on a modest Chinese investment.  
  • Feb 6, 2025
    The Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army are unquestionably guilty of self-defeating behavior. But American military planners should not push their positive...
  • Feb 3, 2025
    The White House should appoint some senior overseer, probably housed within the National Security Council, with the authority to manage all U.S. government endeavors relating to...
  • Jan 21, 2025
    The nature of the current strategic competition suggests that Trump will need to craft a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine radically different from Theodore Roosevelt’s. It will...
  • Jan 9, 2025
    The year 2027 is just a year. We should remain watchful as it approaches, lest the prophets of automatic warfare prove correct, but we should neither relax our guard in the meantime...