World War II

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'Secondly, after the Great War, the mood in Great Britain included many trends and attitudes, the growing anti-colonial movement (supported in part by the United States' ideological position on this), anti-war attitudes, and foremost economic factors, especially the budget for imperial defense and the Ten Year Rule.

Lewis, see my response to Paul. As for Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea, I couldn't agree more--I would have replaced perhaps one of the western admirals with him, but not Zheng He.

Paul, I think the short answer here is that Britain had to make certain trade offs after World War I, and even more during and after World War II due to the extreme situations she found herself in. After 1919 the trade off was equality in naval power with the United States at the Washington Naval Conference--we "owned" the British debt-- and we had a far easier defense situation than Great Britain.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but the panels are all available to view or listen to now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU4vBnB2vX1XrZKwcmJPdbMXDUmrqj3dq

Much of the recent scholarship on the passage of naval superiority from Great Britain to the United States has been written from an American vice a British perspective. Despite recent works, Stephen Roskill's two volume series "Naval Policy Between the Wars" well covers the British perspective and explains how a combination of factors (costs of WW1, an aging fleet worn out from multiple deployments, slackening interest in naval superiority among UK citizens, etc) ultimately forced Britain to shrink her aging fleet.

First, thank you very much for sharing these, Dr Kuehn. I was disappointed to miss McMullen this year, most particularly due to Stavridis' talk and these posts have been much appreciated as a result.

To be honest most of what you have described in the first 4 parts have left me puzzled (my own ignorance). I am surprised that Admiral Stavridis did not mention Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea. Although all the admirals he named were different varieties of brilliant, in my opinion Admiral Yi is the only one who approaches Nelson in terms of tactical brilliance and strategic acumen. He is one of South Korea's national heroes of the Imjin War. Unappreciated by Korea's king, his honors were posthumous.

McMullen Part IV—as observed by John T. Kuehn

Admiral James Stavridis, Ph.D. (USN, RET)—McMullen Sea Power Address to the Midshipmen (Zoomed in) in Mahan Hall,  night of 22 September 2021.

The Holocaust Studies Program of Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel  
    Is honored to host an International Conference  
 
Between War and Mass Murder II
From Babi Yar to the Battle of Moscow,

 
Keynote lecture: Prof. Richard Overy, University of Exeter
 'Autumn 1941: Typhoon, Babi Yar and Hitler's War'