e already
spoken, remain my last extensive works. In the interval between them,
1897-1902, I was engaged mostly in occasional writing, for magazines
or otherwise. From time to time these papers have been collected and
published, under titles which seemed appropriate. Concerning them, for
the most part, there is one general statement to be made. With few
exceptions, they have been written to order. Partly from indisposition
to this particular activity, partly from indolence, ultimately from
conviction that editors best know--or should know--what the public
want, I have left them to come to me. When expedient, I have taken a
subject somewhat apart from that suggested, but usually akin. Speaking
again generally, the field of thought into which I have been thus
drawn has been that of the external policy of nations, and of their
mutual--international--relations; not in respect to international law,
on which I have no claim to teach, but to the examination of extant
conditions, and the appreciation of their probable and proper effect
upon future events and present action. In conception, these studies
are essentially military. The conditions are to my apprehension
forces, contending, perhaps even conflicting; to be handled by those
responsible as a government disposes its fleets and armies. This is
not advocacy of war, but recognition that the providential movement of
the world proceeds through the pressure of circumstances; and that
adverse circumstances can be controlled only by organization of means,
in which armed physical power is one dominant factor.

In direct result from the line of thought into which I was drawn by my
conception of sea power, and which has inspired my subsequent magazine
writing, I am frankly an imperialist, in the sense that I believe that
no nation, certainly no great nation, should henceforth maintain the
policy of isolation which fitted our early history; above all, should
not on that outlived plea refuse to intervene in events obviously
thrust upon its conscience. The world of national activities has
become crowded, like the world of professions; opportunity,
consequently, has diminished, and possibilities must be cultivated and
husbanded. This is the primary duty of a government to its own people
and to their posterity. But there are other duties which must be
accepted, even though they entail national sacrifice, because laid at
the nation's door, like Cuba, or forced upon its decision, like the