Page 121 - The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future

102 The Isthmus and Sea Power.
to enter into war ; but still, the policy of states
is determined by the balance of advantages,
and it behooves us to know what our policy is
to be, and what advantages are needed to turn
in our favor the scale of negotiations and the
general current of events.
If the decision of the nation, following one
school of thought, is that the weaker we are
the more likely we are to have our way, there
is little to be said. Drifting is perhaps as good
a mode as another to reach that desirable goal.
If, on the other hand, we determine that our
interest and dignity require that our rights
should depend upon the will of no other state,
but upon our own power to enforce them, we
must gird ourselves to admit that freedom of
interoceanic transit depends upon predomi-
nance in a maritime region — the Caribbean
Sea — through which pass all the approaches
to the Isthmus. Control of a maritime region
is insured primarily by a navy ; secondarily, by
positions, suitably chosen and spaced one from
the other, upon which as bases the navy rests,
and from which it can exert its strength. At
present the positions of the Caribbean are occu-
pied by foreign powers, nor may we, however