From a study of knowledge of the sea among indigenous cultures in the South Seas to inquiries into the subject of sea monsters, from studies of Pacific currents to descriptions of ocean-going research vessels, the sixty-three essays presented here reflect the scientific complexity and richness of social relationships that characterize ocean-ographic history. Based on papers presented at the Fifth International Congress on the History of Oceanography held at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (the first ICHO meeting following the cessation of the Cold War), the volume features an unusual breadth of contributions. Oceanography itself involves the full spectrum of physical, biological, and earth sciences in their formal, empirical, and applied manifestations. The contributors to Oceanographic History: The Pacific and Beyond undertake the interdisciplinary task of telling the story of oceanography’s past, drawing on diverse methodologies. Their essays explore the concepts, techniques, and technologies of oceanography, as well as the social, economic, and institutional determinants of oceanographic history. Although focused on the Pacific, the geographic range of subjects is global and includes Micronesia, East Africa, and Antarctica; the bathymetric range comprises inshore fisheries, coral reefs, and the "azoic zone." The seventy-one contributors represent every continent of the globe except Antarctica, bringing together material on the history of oceanography never before published.

In this volume, Gary E. Weir assesses the Navy's efforts between 1914 and 1940 to develop effective submarines. In particular, the author describes the work of the Navy and private industry that allowed the relatively primitive submersible of the First World War period to be replaced by the fleet submarine that fought in the Second World War.Building American Submarines argues that there was a fundamental shift in the relationship between the Navy and its submarine suppliers during this period. After being completely dependent upon private industry in 1914, the Navy - not industry - controlled the design and construction process by the eve of the Second World War.. As a result, the Navy was able to acquire high-quality submarines to fulfill the nation's strategic requirements. When we entered the Second World War, these new submarines were ready to undertake prolonged and effective antishipping operations in distant waters. That capability was of enormous importance in the ensuing triumph of American sea power over Imperial Japan.In tracing these developments, the author provides insights into the goals of the naval submarine submarine leaders, the evolution of the American submarine industry, the influence of German underseas technology, and strategic requirements foreseen by naval planners. The Navy's historians hope that this case study of the problems and successes involved in a major weapons acquisition program will be of particular interest to naval personnel involved in that process today, as well as to representatives of the industrial firms that supply the needs of the modern Navy.

Through two victorious world conflicts and a Cold War, the U.S. Navy and American ocean scientists drew ever closer, converting an early marriage of necessity into a relationship of astonishing achievement. Beginning in 1919, Gary Weir's An Ocean in Common traces the first forty-two years of their joint quest to understand each other and the deep ocean.?Early in the twentieth century, American naval officers questioned the tactical and strategic significance of applied ocean science, demonstrating the gap between this kind of knowledge and that deemed critical to naval warfare. At the same time, scientists studying the ocean labored in their inadequately funded, discreet disciplines, seemingly content to keep naval warfare at arm's length. German U-boat success in World War I changed these views fundamentally, bringing ocean science insights to an increasing number of naval objectives.?Driven primarily by anti-submarine priorities, the physics, chemistry, and geology of the ocean, more than its biology, became the early focus of American ocean studies. The World War II experience solidified the Navy's relationship with ocean scientists, and the years after 1945 found the American military investing heavily in both applied and basic research. Today, oceanography is a permanent resident on the bridge of American fighting ships and the Navy continues to provide much of the impetus and funding for fundamental research, in both naval and civilian laboratories.In An Ocean in Common Gary Weir focuses on the compelling motives and carefully engineered course that brought scientists and naval officers together, across a considerable cultural divide, to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of one another and the world ocean. Weir details how this alliance laid the powerful multidisciplinary foundation for long-range ocean communication and surveillance, modern submarine warfare, deep submergence, and the emergence of oceanography and ocean engineering as independent and vital fields of study.

This book is the first to analyze the partnership between the Navy, industry, and science forged by World War II and responsible for producing submarines in the United States in the period from 1940 through 1961. The naval-industrial complex was not the result of a single historical event. Neither was it a political-economic entity. Instead it was made up of many unique and distinct components, all of which developed simultaneously; each reflected the development, significance, and construction of a particular vessel or technology within its historical context. Together these components emerged from World War II as a network of distinct relationships linked together by the motives of national defense, mutual growth, and profit. None of the major players in the drama planned or predetermined the naval-industrial complex, and it did not conform to the views of any individual or confirm the value of a particular system of management. Instead it grew naturally in response to the political environment, strategic circumstances, and perceived national need, its character defined gradually not only by the demands of international conflict but also by the scores of talented people interested in the problems and possibilities of submarine warfare. Their combined efforts during this short period of time produced remarkable advances in nuclear propulsion, submerged speed, quieting, underwater sound, and weaponry, as well as a greater appreciation within the Navy and the shipbuilding industry for the ocean environment.This book won the Roosevelt Prize for naval history.

A clearly articulated, well-defined, and relatively stable grand strategy is supposed to allow the ship of state to steer a steady course through the roiling seas of global politics. However, the obstacles to formulating and implementing grand strategy are, by all accounts, imposing. The Oxford Handbook of Grand Strategy addresses the conceptual and historical foundations, production, evolution, and future of grand strategy from a wide range of standpoints. The seven constituent sections present and critically examine the history of grand strategy, including beyond the West; six distinct theoretical approaches to the subject; the sources of grand strategy, ranging from geography and technology to domestic politics to individual psychology and culture; the instruments of grand strategy's implementation, from military to economic to covert action; political actors', including non-state actors', grand strategic choices; the debatable merits of grand strategy, relative to alternatives; and the future of grand strategy, in light of challenges ranging from political polarization to technological change to aging populations. The result is a field-defining, interdisciplinary, and comparative text that will be a key resource for years to come.