Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD)

Based on new material and a sweeping reevaluation of existing sources in the U.S., Japan, and Hawai`i, Pacific Gibraltar is the first major account of the annexation of Hawai`i, the initial episode of U.S. overseas imperialism, in a generation. The book clarifies murky episodes in the story of annexation, such as USS Boston's mysterious return to Honolulu in time to land Sailors and Marines during the Hawaiian Revolution, President Cleveland's failed attempt to restore Queen Lili'uokalani, and the growing threat to the white rebel government from burgeoning Japanese immigration.

Though the U.S. annexed Hawai'i during the Spanish-American War of 1898, Hawai`i was not a war spoil like the Philippines. Rather, annexation was an old idea. It emerged not only from ideological and economic motives, but above all from Hawai`i's importance to the defense of the West Coast. The 1897 Japan-U.S. crisis over immigration annexation on the political front burner. The final acquisition of the islands in 1898 was in large part the culmination of two decades of surging American appreciation for Hawai`i’s strategic value.

Bill Morgan is professor of strategic studies and director of the regional studies program at the Marine Corps War College (MCWAR) in Quantico, VA. During 2007-09, he was an associate of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. While at Georgetown, he taught U.S.-Japan relations and National Security and Public Diplomacy. For more information on the book, visit the site by Bill Morgan.

The book is being published in the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, Naval Institute Press, May 2011. For more information on ADST (Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training), visit www.adst.org.