In order to be successful, one must never stop learning. A common phrase I have been told at the Naval Academy is, “The day you stop learning is the day you start dying.” A history course with many aspects focused on the military side of past civilizations helps future military leaders learn from mistakes. While learning from past civilizations’ mistakes, these courses help young leaders incorporate new ideas into their own way of thinking.

Currently, every country and even person has a different approach to war and tactics, and that has held the same throughout history. Every individual holds an opinion on what works best for war in terms of succeeding. Chinese history and civilization has always really intrigued me, and a military leader I really respect is Sun-Tzu. In high school, I had the opportunity to read Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War and really dissect what he was saying. In his literature, Sun-Tzu states that the ultimate goal of war is to “subdue the enemy without fighting” (The Art of War, 2.20). Sun-Tzu stood apart from his competitors because he incorporated Taoist principles that emphasized more philosophical thinking. Successful people should focus on their natural being and development as a person. Taoist followers support harmony and virtue.

As a midshipman, I believe I support the same ideals. I support the harmony of people and the fluidity of a brigade working together to achieve a goal, one that naturally aligns with the way of the world. People are most effective when they are able to work in an environment most conducive to them personally. Why would leadership force its people to work uphill when the same outcome can be achieved by going downhill?

Not only will learning from China help me create a unique leadership style and goals for my subordinates, it will also help me understand China as an adversary. China’s military and political history will help me find ways to create relationships with Chinese nationals in order to support the mission of the United States Navy. This will especially hold true if I achieve my dreams of becoming a Foreign Area Officer, working directly in China on behalf of the Navy. In order to be a FAO, I must get a Master’s degree in International Relations, so learning about China and its important history  beforehand will give me a leg up in the future. Overall, it is important to know the history of a country you are trying to subdue.

Military leaders should handle war as a means for peace instead of creating conflict. Learning about the Taoist principles in Sun-Tzu’s writings have given me a different perspective on war, strategy, and tactics. This information will not only aid my job as a Junior Officer directly out of the Naval Academy, but it will also help in long term career goals. Learning about different civilizations in this class has helped me explore different ways I want to lead in the Fleet.

 

Corinne DeSpain

 

Word count: 483

https://www.ancient.eu/Sun-Tzu/

China, as the world knows it today, is a homogeneous and traditional country. Searching in its past, however, China saw many shifts with differing dynasties. Each dynasty brought new ideas and ways of being to the people in China. However, there was one continuity in Chinese culture throughout all the changes: Confucianism. Many of the ruling dynasty put the power into the hands of Confucian scholars who have proved their worth through time and tests, creating a bureaucracy.

An advantage of staffing a bureaucracy with scholars is that those people place an emphasis on different parts of society. In general, there will be a larger emphasis on education and the arts. This emphasis helped educate the common people in a different sense — it influenced their morals. Confucian scholars advocated simplistic values compared to luxuries, so society had a balance of people working in their niches and creating only what they need to survive. On the other hand, merchants sometimes promoted luxury goods.

While having a scholar-based bureaucracy provides many advantages, there are also disadvantages. A problem with this type of bureaucracy is that the people who are educated have the power. It makes it more difficult for a wider variety of people to assume power. These scholars have to take many exams, the highest being the “jinshi” exam (Ancient). There was an extremely heavy emphasis on education and literacy. Another difficulty with the relationship between the bureaucracy and Confucianism is the fact that the tests were based on Confucian literary texts. This was a self-fulfilling prophecy to create more power for Confucian scholars. When the Confucian scholars assumed power, there were disagreements between them and political leaders. Politicians did not appreciate moral values being projected onto them, something that is seen in modern society as well.

In modern-day America, the more educated advance more in their careers. Similar to China, this has advantages and disadvantages. It is positive that America is able to have leaders who are more educated and have more knowledge on certain topics. On the other hand, these qualifications seem to only be reached by certain groups of people. Once again, this makes the leadership less diverse. This emphasis on education spreads through all aspects of life. Relating to the Navy, officers struggle advancing beyond certain ranks without seeking higher education. Most of the world sees this growing emphasis on education and power.

The world has always been changing. In regards to China, a prevalent theme mixed with the changes of different ruling parties and dynasties has been Confucianism. Chinese bureaucracy was often staffed with Confucian scholars who excelled in literary exams. Modern-day society still sees this emphasis today with highly-educated people in power.

 

Corinne DeSpain

 

Word count: 446

 

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1335/the-civil-service-examinations-of-imperial-china/

It seems as though every country and even person has a different approach to war and tactics. Every individual holds an opinion on what works best for war in terms of succeeding. One man with an unusual perspective on was Sun-Tzu. Sun-Tzu was a Chinese general around 500 B.C.E. His ideas regarding military strategy were different because he also incorporated philosophical thinking, specifically Taoist principles. Taoism promotes a way of life that emphasizes natural being and interpersonal development and relationships – followers support harmony and virtue. At face value, this does not seem to work well with any aspect of war, an event that is disruptive and destructive.

In a situation that is at its very core destructive, Sun-Tzu’s interesting approach on doing the best to maintain harmony and balance seemed counter-intuitive. However, Sun-Tzu looked at war as a means for peace. He refused to “consider war a sport” (Ancient) and instead focused on the nation being in “peace or in peril” (The Art of War, 2.20) as the result of the campaigns. This is especially seen in the beginning of his writings where he describes the preliminary plans for war.

In addition to writing specific ideas for approaching war, Sun-Tzu also covers larger ideas represented in the Taoist philosophies. He mentions yin and yang and the harmony between counteracting forces. Every action should be natural and create balance in the world. Sun-Tzu’s works demonstrate an ability to work in a rather unnatural environment.

The environment at the Naval Academy is definitely unnatural. Since the beginning, midshipmen are taught stoicism, this goes against natural ways where you have to go out of your way to hide emotions. In fact, a military bearing is so important that our emotions are often used against us. The thought behind this emphasis is that the enemy will not be able to read what you are thinking and, as a result, not be able to predict future moves. The strict schedule at the academy also creates an unnatural and negative influence on the midshipmen. These young adults stay up late and wake up early for mandatory workouts or events, which ultimately tire them out and limit cognitive functions.

Sun-Tzu’s main goal in war was to defeat the enemy and end the war, instead of prolonging the activities and the conflict. Society approaches war as a game almost, like battleship. It seems as though news of conflict hit headlines and the public is fascinated. Society feeds off of the conflict and destruction, which is very much against Taoism.

Overall, a mixture of the two perspectives would be most effective. Military leaders should handle war as a means for peace. I agree that stoicism in the face of the enemy is an important factor in success because the enemy should not know our weaknesses or strengths. A blend of Taoism and modern approaches would definitely create an intriguing attitude towards military conflict, probably one that has not been seen before. Just as Sun-Tzu paved the way for different ideologies, every leader will have his or her own approach to techniques and tactics for war.

 

Corinne DeSpain

Word count: 513

https://www.ancient.eu/Sun-Tzu/

It is commonly stated that history repeats itself. Now, we are able to look back and see One of the struggles of the modern world is the divisive discussion of what constitutes a citizen. In the United States, we have been dealing with this problem for decades, with it becoming hot-topic debate in the recent years. However, Ancient Greece Rome had similar disagreements between its people over 2,000 years ago. After the Peloponnesian War, Athens had to decide whether or not metics and slaves were going to be allowed citizenship as the city was rebuilding.

During our the second assembly meeting in class, we discussed the electorate, or how we were going to define Athenian citizenship as. I was a moderate democrat, so we proposed a bill that people with Athenian parents will be granted citizenship prima facie, while metics could apply to be citizens and be screened to see whether or not their allegiance is with Athens. The assembly must be filled with those who will take the best into account for Athens and its citizens. The main argument we had is that Athens is already having to fight with external adversaries, why should we have to deal with major internal strife as well? This is also seen in current disputes over immigration.

It seems as though immigration has become the focus of major political campaigns. The American public feeds off of political debate regarding the border between the United States and Mexico. In 2012, Barack Obama developed the “Dreamers” protected under The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, also known as DACA. Children that have been living in the States for their whole lives have an attachment to this country and should be able to have the opportunity to become citizens. They have grew up with a different familial culture, but that just adds to the diversity of the population in the United States.  We are already able to see that some things never change, because even with DACA, the people applying are “vetted for any criminal history or threat to national security and must be students or have completed school or military service” (The Guardian). This goes back to our assembly meetings in class where we decided that metics may be granted citizenship after our own vetting process that determined their loyalty to Athens. In reality, metics and other loyal supporters did receive Athenian citizenship (UChicago). It is interesting to see the parallels between two situations thousands of years apart.

Honestly, I did not even recognize the similarities in current problems we are dealing with today. I think that is the importance of history. We need to be able to understand the historical significance of events and learn from them for the future. Writing this blog and doing some more research has definitely refined my views on DACA and Dreamers. I would have never been prompted to do more research on the modern problems without learning more about the past.

 

Corinne DeSpain

 

Word count: 471

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/donald-trump-what-is-daca-dreamers

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html

Democracy stems all the way back to the ancient Athenians. They had a governmental structure that allowed male citizens to vote, which is their version of a direct democracy. The American public today also supports a democracy. However, the American democracy is specifically a representative democracy, which means that the general public elects people to represent them in the government. Most democracies today are representative democracies instead of direct democracies. I believe that, given our current structure and size, the American model of democracy is a better way to govern because it is more orderly, is more efficient, and does the best to represent a large country with a large population.

The Athenians believed they had a true democracy. In their own time, the people who were considered active citizens in society were allowed a vote in the democracy. With the Athenian model, it is great to have the government open to the wide variety of people, all participating directly in their government. However, it can get hectic and disorganized, with some people saying that it may turn into a frenzied mob. To solve this problem in the modern world, the American model of democracy creates a more orderly environment.

One reason that modern America does not have a direct democracy is because of the size. A direct democracy cannot work in modern societies because “they were too large—both in terms of population and geographic size” (Age of Revolutions). It would be difficult for such a large country with a large population to have an Athenian model of Democracy. It would be nearly impossible for everyone’s voice to be heard for it to function true to the model. A representative democracy creates effective passageways for representative opinions and ideas for the public to still be heard in the government.

However, this representative democracy does limit the representation of some parts of the population. There are also ways that some people can override the system and gain more  power. An example of this is gerrymandering, where you purposely manipulate the boundaries of voting areas in order to gain power for a person or party.

In both types of democracies, there is a bias towards people who have a higher status in society. In Athens, wealthy male citizens had more time and funds to spare to make trips to meetings and voice their opinion. What we see today are politicians being fueled by monetary donations from PACs and Super PACs. Political candidates need to tailor their campaigns to appease more and gain more financial support, which may lead them to stray away from the ideals of the people they are actually supposed to represent.

The definition of a democracy varies country by country and throughout time. The main types of democracy are direct and representative democracy. The ancient Athenians, or the founders of democracy, supported a direct democracy which involves all citizens. In contrast, modern America sports a representative democracy with elected people representing groups of others. Overall, the representative democracy is better suited for America’s large population and geographical size.

 

Corinne DeSpain

 

Word count: 495

https://ageofrevolutions.com/2018/07/23/the-invention-of-representative-democracy/

Venezuela has been suffering from months of political dissent and hyperinflation, but the recent presidential elections in the country pushed the people to the edge. On January 23rd, the leader of the legislation Juan Guaidó declared himself as acting president. The real president Nicolás Maduro just began his second six-year term in office a couple weeks before. As a result, the majority of active participants in the National Assembly of Venezuela are currently protesting this recent move, saying that there needs to be an end to Maduro’s reign. A Venezuelan citizen being interviewed for a news article said, “We want the dictatorship out and an end to tyranny – it is more than possible,” (The Guardian). His statement shows what the people think Maduro is – a tyrant. Other protestors to this regime posted banners with comments such as, “Juan Guaidó – we will stand with you until democracy is restored,” (BBC). The citizens believe they are currently functioning under a tyrannical regime because of Maduro’s policies.

According to modern day society, the word “tyrant” is used correctly. The word tyrant in this article holds true to the modern usage and understanding. People would be able to read the article and understand the true hatred that the citizens of Venezuela feel towards their President. People today view tyrants as people in a position of power who are cruel and oppressive who use their position of power only for their own good. I know that this is not the correct usage of the word. However, many people fail to understand the original definition of the word “tyrant”.

The true meaning of the word “tyrant” stems from Ancient Greece. Before the rise of the democracy, the people labeled as tyrants were those who rose to power without having the hereditary right to that power. In reality, these tyrants in Ancient Greece exercised extra constitutional power, and some solved stasis. Benevolent tyrants such as Pesisistratos actually weakened the Aristocrats in power and lead the way to democracy. He established domestic policies such as coinage, weights, and measures. Soon after, Athenians won and a democracy was established, the tyrants were not democratic, so they were frowned upon. Tyrants, who were initially decent people, became corrupt, greedy, and sexually deviant. This is where we acquire the negative connotations and feelings associated with the word “tyrant”. These negative emotions were so powerful they managed to shift the denotative meaning of the word for the rest of history.

Currently, mass media still uses the word “tyrant” to describe people in positions of power who are corrupt and toxic to the people and places they rule. In Venezuela, the citizens underwent a questionable reelection of their president, Nicolás Maduro. Suspecting an immoral election process, the people labeled him a tyrant and turned to support the leader of the legislative branch taking over the executive. Overall, the word “tyrant” evokes strong, negative emotions in people today, despite the word beginning in Ancient Greece as a description for people who assumed power without hereditary rights.

 

Corinne DeSpain

 

Word count: 475

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36319877

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/24/we-want-an-end-to-tyranny-venezuelan-diaspora-call-for-maduro-to-go