Is America’s position as the top world power in peril?
If the nation doesn’t take actions to improve its naval forces, it very well may be, according to Seth Cropsey, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Cropsey was the first speaker of the school year in Ohio University’s Contemporary History Institute Speaker Series.
The director of the Contemporary History Institute, Steven Miner, introduced Cropsey by calling his background in American defense “extraordinary and varied and colorful.”
Cropsey explained that democracies are attempting to enlarge the circle of democratic states to make for a safer world, because democracies “possess the means to build and maintain technical advanced militaries.”
However, democracies face contraction, which leads to weakness and, ultimately, a diminution of power and presence.
“‘Soft power’ cannot be effective without ‘hard power’ to support,” Cropsey said. “The heart of the question is whether our global presence and ability to project power will allow the democratic states to keep the ‘demosphere’ from contracting.”
Cropsey stated that American policy has consistently responded to — rather than anticipated — conflicts. He said that China is denying the U.S. access to the Western Pacific, and therefore our ability to honor our commitments to the five countries with which we have security treaties is being questioned.
“China has launched cyber attacks against the U.S. government and industry and their military budget continues … to increase by double-digit figures,” Cropsey said. “They have built a formidable array of surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.”
President Ronald Reagan’s goal for the naval fleet was to have 600 ships by the end of the Cold War, but our fleet is down to 284 ships today, Cropsey said.
The Navy is asking for $14 billion this year for shipbuilding, but they acknowledge the fact that they will need $18.8 billion per year for the next 30 years in order to reach a fleet of 306 ships, Cropsey said.
“I really do not think Americans have become isolationists. I do not think our fellow citizens want a military that is second best to anyone in the world,” Cropsey said.
To begin his presentation, Cropsey talked about his most recent book, Mayday: The Decline of American Naval Supremacy.
Copies of the book were available just outside the presentation room: Baker University Center 242.
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