Shulman site

The Imperial Presidency and the Consequences of 9/11:
Lawyers Respond to the Global War on Terrorism

Edited with Jim Silkenat with a foreword by City Bar presidents Barry Kamins, Bettina B. Plevan, E. Leo Milonas and Evan A. Davis

This two-volume work collects the hard-hitting reports, amicus briefs and letters produced by lawyers of the New York City Bar Association since September 11, 2001 in their effort to preserve rights and liberties in a time of peril.

Over the past seven years, much lip service has been paid to the phrase "rule of law." At the same time, the U.S. Government has avoided basic rule of law principles by holding prisoners outside the law (off the books and out of Red Cross supervision, off shore or even on U.S. soil, but without due process or urgent matter that bears on the security of this country). In both volumes, learned practitioners and scholars argue in favor of adherence to time-tested principles. Each report has a preface that places the material in historical and legal context. And as the course correction gains momentum, this book takes on a new relevance offering roadmaps to a better balance of security and liberty.

Download the Introduction

Navalism and the Emergence of
American Sea Power, 1882-1893

A new aggressive American naval strategy emerged in the 1880s and nineties as the product of a distinct political agenda formulated and effected by a small group of energetic, progressive, intellectual timocrats. Although the navalists provided the catalyst for the new navy, the process of its creation required popular support. The general public, as well as the political and intellectual elites, determined the shape and consequently the strategy of the new navy. Together, they created an imperial service.

"In Navalism and the Emergence of American Sea Power, Mark Russell Shulman provides a carefully nuanced yet conceptually compelling account of the political and intellectual forces driving the construction of this new, imperial-style US navy in the 1880s and 1890s."
-- Edward R. Rhodes, International History Review

Book Review

An Admiral's Yarn

With a forward by the late Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski, one-time President of the Naval War College and the first Director of the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation

This is the edited memoir of Harris Laning who served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1891 to 1937. As well as anyone, he represents the men who built up the service into the world's greatest maritime fighting force. Born in 1873, when the old Navy's fighting effectiveness was at its nadir, he joined the service during the "era of the battleship." Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan had recently published his The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783, and the U.S. Navy had begun to modernize and professionalize itself, constructing its first steel battleships to replace those warships remaining from the Civil War era. The Navy from which Laning eventually retired in 1937 was arguably the world's greatest, boasting fifteen dreadnoughts that cruised alongside aircraft carriers and fleet submarines. With the exception of the carriers and submarines, Laning served in every type of fighting ship: frigate, monitor, gunboat, destroyer, cruiser, and battleship. Admiral Laning's final cruise, as commander of the Battle Force, U.S. Fleet, culminated his long and distinguished service in the United States Navy.

The Laws of War:
Constraints on Warfare in the Western World

Edited with Sir Michael Howard and George Andreopoulos

"Simply put, this book is a "must read" for warfighters, judge advocates, and scholars working in the field of military history, strategy and policy, or international law. It provides a much-needed historical backdrop for our sometimes sterile consideration of the laws and practices of war. In that sense, it is an immensely valuable contribution to our understanding of warfare."
-- Michael C. Schmitt, Naval War College Review

"Excellent book"
-- John Keegan, Times Literary Supplement