The Jeune École, Past and Present

Monday 10 November 2025 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM (UTC+11)

RSSS Building, Lectorial 1 (Room 1.21), ANU

146 Ellery Crescent, Acton ACT 2601

Technological innovation and geopolitical revisionism have posed fundamental challenges to the role of military power in national security and international relations – challenges to which navies are not immune. Classic strategists of sea power such as Mahan and Corbett retain their currency in this space. But given the strange resemblances between the present and the late nineteenth century perhaps another perspective is required. When the Jeune École emerged in France in the 1880s to promote a new vision of naval warfare based on technological expediency and an integrated vision of the economic and maritime domains, it was hailed as visionary and reactionary in equal measure. To this day, the Jeune École has been nothing if not divisive. The aim of this workshop is to revisit the Jeune Ecole in its own context for a fuller understanding of its core ideas and to assess contemporary challenges in the Indo-Pacific in the light of its legacy.

This workshop has been supported by the FASIC program of the Embassy of France in Australia

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