"Napoleon and Naval Integration" Topic

"This article parallels the U.S. Marine Corps' purpose of achieving naval integration with that of the British success in defeating Napoleonic France. The historical context emphasizes the need to ensure that naval integration seeks a unity of the operational art and resists an inclination to bow to operational art as distinct in each domain. Britain's ability to marshal this response via all instruments of national power proved a key determinant of success that is worth emulating today.

Napoleon Bonaparte, "history's greatest soldier," casts a long shadow over U.S. military doctrine. Napoleon had the ability to fix and flank an enemy and win a swift battlefield decision, coupled with the conscious effort to seize the initiative even when on the defense. This mastery of maneuver warfare informs all the Services.1 This mandate derives from the study of Napoleon's campaigns where mobility and an unceasing offensive mindset constituted essential elements of his many successful battles. Added to this are the abundant leadership traits this individual can impart today, chief among them that a commander can will their troops to victory. To mirror such attributes pays a heady compliment to that soldier, but that homage faces the challenge of explaining the great one's fall. After allied powers defeated him at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon left France smaller, weaker, and more subservient to his foremost enemy, Great Britain, than when he first emerged to lead a revolutionary France some 20 years before…"

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Armand

Presumably it's a fairly short paper? Napoleon never understood the significance of Sea Power.

Agree…

Armand