(单词翻译:单击)
To the degree possible, a seapower state seeks to avoid direct participation in land wars, large or small.
在一定程度上，一个海权国家会尽可能避免直接参与大大小小的陆地战争。
There have been only a few true seapower nations in history—notably Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Venice, and Carthage.
历史上只有少数几个国家是真正的海权国家——著名的有大不列颠（英国）、荷兰共和国、威尼斯和迦太基。
I grew up on a dairy farm in Indiana and spent 26 years on active duty in the Navy, deploying in support of combat operations in the Middle East and Yugoslavia, both at sea and in the air.
我在印第安纳州的一个奶牛场长大，随后在海军服役26年(仍在服役)，对中东和南斯拉夫的海空作战指挥支持进行部署。
I did postgraduate work at several universities and served as a strategist and an adviser to senior officials in the Pentagon.
我曾在几所大学从事研究工作，也担任过五角大楼的战略师和高级官员顾问。
Yet I have always remained, in terms of interests and outlook, a son of the Midwest.
然而，就利害关系与个人观点而言，我始终是中西部之子。
In my writings I have sought to underscore sea power’s importance and the reliance of our economy on the sea.
在我的文章中，我试图强调海权的重要性以及我国经济对海洋的依赖。
Despite my experience, I was never able to convince my mother.
尽管我工作经验丰富，但我始终无法说服母亲。
She spent the last years of her working life at the Walmart in my hometown, first at the checkout counter and then in accounting.
她职业生涯的最后几年是在我家乡的沃尔玛度过的，先是在收银台，后来是在会计部。
My mother followed the news and was sharply curious about the world; we were close, and spoke often.
母亲喜欢关注新闻，对世界充满了强烈的好奇心; 我们亲密无间，经常交谈。
She was glad that I was in the Navy, but not because she saw my work as essential to her own life.
她为我在海军服役感到高兴，但这并非因为她觉得我的工作对她自己的生活至关重要。
“If you like Walmart,” I often told my mother, “then you ought to love the U.S. Navy. It’s the Navy that makes Walmart possible.”
“如果你喜欢沃尔玛，”我经常对母亲说，“那么你应该也喜欢美国海军。是海军让沃尔玛成为可能。”
But to her, as a mother, my naval service mostly meant that, unlike friends and cousins who deployed with the Army or Marine Corps to Iraq or Afghanistan, I probably wasn’t going to be shot at.
不过，于一位母亲而言，在海军服役主要意味着，与我的朋友与堂兄弟姐妹不同(他们随同陆军与海军陆战队被派往伊拉克或阿富汗)，我可能不会被枪击。
Her perspective is consistent with a phenomenon that the strategist Seth Cropsey has called seablindness.
她的观点与战略家赛斯·克罗普西所说的“海盲”现象一致。
Today, it is difficult to appreciate the scale or speed of the transformation wrought after World War II.
今天，我们很难意识到二战后变革的规模和速度。
The war destroyed or left destitute all of the world powers opposed to the concept of a mare liberum—a “free sea”—first enunciated by the Dutch philosopher Hugo Grotius in 1609.
1609年，荷兰哲学家雨果·格劳秀斯首次提出了“海洋自由”的概念，而二战摧毁了所有反对这一概念的世界强国，让这些反对国陷入贫困。
The United States and Great Britain, the two traditional proponents of a free sea, had emerged not only triumphant but also in a position of overwhelming naval dominance.
美国和大不列颠(英国)这两个向来主张海洋自由的国家，不仅取得了胜利，而且还处于压倒性的海军主导地位。
Their navies were together larger than all of the other navies of the world combined.
他们的海军规模加起来比世界上所有其他国家的海军加起来还要大。
A free sea was no longer an idea. It was now a reality.
海洋自由不再是一个想法。那时成为了现实。
