The Foreign Service Journal, November 2011

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 61 useful corrective for those who ques- tion the value of Washington dealing directly with the Vatican. Damian Leader, a Foreign Service offi- cer since 1985, is the chief arms control delegate at the U.S Mission to the Or- ganization for Security and Coopera- tion in Europe. Among his earlier assignments, he served as deputy chief of mission in Vilnius and a political of- ficer (and sometime chargé d’affaires) at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, among many other assignments. Not So Pacific Pacific Gibraltar: U.S.-Japanese Rivalry over the Annexation of Hawaii, 1885-1898 William Michael Morgan, Naval Institute Press, 2011, $34.95, hardcover, 384 pages. R EVIEWED BY D AVID T. J ONES Pacific Gibraltar , part of the ADST- DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, is neither “Hawaii Five-O” nor a comprehensive history of the state. Rather, it supplies painstakingly thor- ough documentation of an early rivalry between two rising naval powers, each seeking to expand its own sphere of in- fluence into the Pacific. Author William M. Morgan, a 30- year veteran of the Foreign Service who is now a professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War Col- lege in Quantico, Va., charts the course of American involvement in Hawaii from the establishment of whaling and sugar enterprises in the 1850s and 1860s to the eventual annexation of the archipelago in 1898. He clarifies the complex interplay of commercial assets, long-term strate- gic concerns and ethno-political ten- sions among native Hawaiians, white oligarchs and the burgeoning popula- tion of Asian immigrants, largely Japanese, that led the U.S. ultimately to annex the islands just as the Span- ish-American War was heating up. Because sugar plantation owners preferred Japanese labor to Chinese, Tokyo’s privatization of the labor sup- ply system caused major problems in Hawaii, where the political systemwas quite unstable. A pivot point came in 1891 when the easygoing King Kala- kaua died abruptly and was succeeded by his sister, Queen Liliuokalani — who was neither easygoing nor flexi- ble. In early 1893, she moved to reclaim full powers for the monarchy, promul- gating a new constitution placing ex- tensive restrictions on non-native residents of Hawaii — essentially the white community. When they re- volted, the queen appealed to Wash- ington for redress, giving the U.S. an opening to intervene. The last decade of the 19th cen- tury saw powerful new states emerg- ing in the Far East and elsewhere, intent on doing some imperialist colony-building of their own. As part of this trend, Tokyo began ratcheting up pressure on the feeble Hawaiian government to increase its influence. By 1897 Japanese naval visits and diplomatic notes had escalated to the point of threatening American inter- ests. For its part, the United States had recently begun to view itself as a Pa- cific as well as an Atlantic power, a stance that entailed securing west coast approaches and anticipating the construction of an Isthmus of Panama/Nicaragua canal. In this re- gard, Morgan aptly cites the profound influence of Alfred Thayer Mahan, who spelled out Hawaii’s strategic po- sition for defense of the mainland and American power projection. Morgan’s documentation of the maneuvers McKinley administration officials orchestrated throughout 1898 to gain congressional approval for an- nexation of Hawaii is “inside the Belt- way” reporting at its finest. For the appreciative political junkie historian, not even the passage of a century re- duces its appeal; in fact, the counter- vailing arguments for and against annexation are all too reminiscent of congressional maneuvering today. Although it is an excellent diplo- matic history, Pacific Gibraltar does have shortcomings. The extended chapter on Mahan and sea power the- ory could have been significantly con- densed. In addition, Morgan only includes two maps; a few more would have clarified his points. Finally, he draws numerous, engaging thumbnail sketches of Hawaiian, American and Japanese personalities, but supplies nary a photograph of them to add a human dimension. These omissions presumably re- flect Naval Institute Press funding constraints, but they still detract un- necessarily from an otherwise engag- ing historical and diplomatic analysis. Even so, this book should interest many Foreign Service readers, partic- ularly those who specialize in Asia-Pa- cific or political-military affairs. David T. Jones, a retired Senior FSO, is a frequent contributor to the Jour- nal . He is the co-author of Uneasy Neighbo(u)rs: Canada, the USA and the Dynamics of State, Industry and Culture (Wiley, 2007), a study of U.S.- Canadian relations. B O O K S