Changing Course: Making the Case (Old and New) for American Seapower (February 2018)
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Date
2018-02
Authors
Gallagher, Michael
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Publisher
Texas National Security Review
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Description
There is a moment in the 2001 comedy Zoolander when the villain Mugatu, portrayed by a whitehaired Will Ferrell, screams as his plan disintegrates: “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” One year into my first term in Congress, this captures the mood of defense hawks in general and advocates of seapower in particular. On the one hand, this country has a president who campaigned on expanding the Navy and who signed a National Defense Authorization Act making it U.S. policy to build a 355-ship Navy “as soon as practicable.”1 Multiple independent reviews commissioned by Congress and the Navy leadership have reaffirmed the strategic necessity of getting to 355 in due haste.2