Book Reviews
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Book Reviews Tim Barrett. The Navy and the Na- background as it developed from the tion. Australia’s Maritime Power in British Royal Navy (RN). There are the 21st Century. Melbourne, AU: brief accounts of twentieth-century Melbourne University Press, naval conflicts —Jutland, the Battle www.mun.com.au, 2017. 89 pp., of the Atlantic, and the Coral Sea— notes index. AU $19.99, paper; ISBN and convincingly relates their impor- 978-0-522-87158-6. (E-book avail- tance to Australian naval power. The able) lessons he draws from these battles and other issues are that the RAN Vice-Admiral Tim Barrett, Chief of must focus on protecting Australia the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) through application of military force since 2014, has written a short (77 at the enemy. This encompasses five pages of text) book in which he posi- major points: projecting force at a tions the RAN within its historical distance (the Coral Sea battle); im- context, its work with other navies, posing great and unacceptable costs how the RAN fits in with Australia as on the adversary (Jutland); targeted a whole, and what the future holds. and decisive lethal force (the RN in Barrett states his basic thesis in the 1982 Falklands War and the US the very first paragraph: the RAN is a Navy [USN] in the first Persian Gulf national enterprise, part and parcel of war); agility through quick decision- Australian society, which supports, making (the Battle of Leyte Gulf in and must be supported by, the nation 1944); and the use of sea control (the as a whole. He breaks the book into Battle of the Atlantic). He further ten chapters: the shape of things to notes the rising influence and power come; the RAN’s heritage; naval of the People’s Republic of China. power, maritime power, and strategic His chapter on the RAN’s past and reach; the nature of contemporary current work with the USN, the RN, maritime power; the strategic contest; and the Royal New Zealand Navy is alliances and coalitions; the Navy as especially apt for countries entering a system; the Navy as a national en- into strategic alliances with other terprise; the Navy and the commu- nations. nity; the Navy and the nation. Barrett expands on his thesis in He states that clear direction and two chapters. First, a navy must be guidance are critical leadership quali- viewed as a system, not a closed sys- ties and that leaders at all RAN levels tem but a synergistic system of per- must be on the same page. He then sonnel, technology, and organization. moves on to describe the RAN’s All three of those components must The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, XXVII, No. 4 (Oct. 2017), 403-53. 404 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord work together to create an effective force must be seen as a system of navy. Given the changes in the times, manpower, equipment and technol- it is no longer possible to view a navy ogy, and organization; and that opera- as just a collection of ships and men. tional capability with other nations’ He emphasizes that the human di- forces is critical. The questions he mension will always be needed in poses can be applied to any military combat; it is too easy for a machine service. While the book is intended to mistake something harmless for a for an Australian audience, military target and thus, the human element in leaders and decision-makers can learn instant decision-making will always much from the broader points it be needed, as well as in prioritizing makes. It is superfluous to recom- targets. In the end, morality is re- mend this work; I need only state that quired in combat—so human discern- The Navy and the Nation deserves a ment is essential. world-wide readership. Finally—the RAN is an Austra- lian national enterprise—an integral Robert L. Shoop part of Australian society. It is neces- Colorado Springs, Colorado sary to protect the island nation/ con- tinent. Involved in that enterprise are five basic questions: where does the Christian Buchet, Michel Balard (ed.) nation, through its government, want The Sea in History - The Medieval the RAN to operate?; how long does World/La Mer dans l’histoire - Le the nation want the RAN’s submarine Moyen Âge. Martlesham, SFK: force to be stationed?; and how many B o y d e l l a n d B r e w e r , stations does the nation want to www.boydelandbrewer .com, 2017. RAN’s submarine force to have in 1086 pp., illustrations, notes, bibliog- order to effectively operate?; how can raphy, index. US $220.00, hardback; the submarine force be maintained?, ISBN 978-1-78327-159-2. (E-book and how can continuous training be available.) implemented? Those are questions that, when slightly modified, can be This intimidating volume represents posed to any navy and indeed, any the second in a set of four, following military service. on The Sea in History - The Ancient It is a short book, indeed; but that World, and preceding two more is also its virtue. Barrett makes his books on the early modern and mod- points concisely with the result that ern eras. The book’s editor, Michel this book can be read in one sitting. Balard, wastes no time in invoking While the author focuses on Australia Braudel in his introduction, which and the RAN, the concepts expressed serves as a clear enough signpost to therein are must-reading for military what follows. And what follows is officers and policy-makers of what- interesting, diverse, and often excit- ever force, wherever situated. To ing. Even 75 papers in French and broadly restate Barrett’s main points: English and over a thousand pages, ANY military force is a national en- however, can hardly do justice to a terprise which supports and is sup- subject that spans a millennium ported by that nation; that a military and—more ambitiously—the entire Book Reviews 405 world. The book embraces “Univer- Gerassimos Pagratis and Nevra sal History,” as the editor puts it, Necipolu, contest the traditional seeking to identify how the sea was a view of Byzantines as antipathetic to “differentiating factor in world his- the sea. Other contributors, however, tory.” It is a tall order, and one can- provide straightforward surveys of not envy the editor his job of herding their subjects, as in Sachin Pendse’s so many scholars, themselves distrib- paper on shipbuilding in India and uted across 40 countries, including Jorge Ortiz-Sotelo’s overview of the Caribbean, Mali, Korea, the “Central Andean Peoples and their Mongol Empire, Indonesia and else- Relationship to the Sea.” Some of where. Despite that geographical these feel more necessary than others: spread, the total regional distribution with a surfeit of books on the Vikings of the chapters does not stray that far available, do we need a new 14-page from the traditional haunts of medi- overview of the Viking ship, no mat- eval studies. Of the 75 entries, 31 ter how well written? One senses the deal with some aspect of the Mediter- intention to cover all the bases, but of ranean (including the Black Sea), course there are omissions. The ab- with 10 focussing on Venice and sence of Polynesia is surprising; like- Genoa alone. Another 14 cover the wise, except for a section on Spain, North Atlantic, North Sea and Scan- the Islamic Mediterranean during its dinavia. This leaves little room for so-called “Golden Age” before the the Americas, where we have two crusades is entirely absent. And papers on the Mayans and one on the while Angela Schottenhammer pro- Andean coast of South America. The vides a useful overview of “Maritime Indian Ocean is better served with Relations between the Indian Ocean seven papers, and the Far East with and China in the Middle Ages,” the six. The remaining chapters are intervening territory of mainland broader studies, which tend to focus South-East Asia doesn’t merit a sin- on European examples, such as Niko- gle article. las Jaspert’s look at the link between Meanwhile, for the ever popular piracy and state power, while a hand- city of Venice, we learn about the ful of authors travel even further culture and conditions of sailors in afield, to Senegal, or to the Philip- Doris Stöckly’s paper, Jean-Claude pines. Hocquet explains the vital role of salt A book like this faces a chal- in the commune’s economy, Bernard lenge: to cover the bases implied in Doumerc outlines different logistical its title, or to provide new offerings approaches to Venetian seafaring, and fresh scholarship. The Sea in Elisabeth Crouzet-Pavan describes History attempts to satisfy both re- the expansion of the arsenal over the quirements, with mixed results. centuries, while John E. Dotson ad- Some contributors offer new insights, dresses the shipbuilders and Ruthy such as Gertwagen’s insightful reflec- Gertwagen offers an admirable over- tions on the sheer incompetence of view of the “Naval Power of Venice the Venetian navy, and Gregor Roh- in the Eastern Mediterranean.” At mann on the Vitalian Brethen in the the other end of the world, of six Baltic. Two engaging chapters, by sections dealing with the Far East, 406 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord two full papers and part of another read; this reader had never before focus on the few decades of the early- considered the navigational problems fifteenth century in which the trea- faced by the early Maya, or the balsa sure ships sailed under Zheng He.