The U.S. Navy Beyond Iraq – Sea Power for a New Era

On April 3, the Brookings Institution’s 21st Century Defense Initiative hosted Admiral Michael G. Mullen, chief of naval operations, for a discussion of the U.S. Navy’s efforts to draft a new maritime strategy and prepare for the challenges of the twenty-first century.

In his almost forty years of service, Adm. Mullen has witnessed the transformation of U.S. naval forces, and has in recent years been its principal agent of change. He once said, “Without mastery of the sea – without sea power – we cannot protect trade, we cannot help those in peril, we cannot provide relief from natural disaster, and we cannot intercede when whole societies are torn asunder by slavery, weapons of mass destruction, drugs, and piracy.”

Carlos Pascual, vice president and director of Brookings’s Foreign Policy Studies program, provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. After the program, Adm. Mullen took audience questions.