By Phil Bozzelli and Paul Giarra

The Duke of Wellington’s aphorism “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton,” has been widely accepted as a validation of sports and their greater relevance to warfighting and victory. We take that statement at face value but go further.

Using the renewed emphasis upon warfighting within the defense and naval establishments, we propose that sports at our service academies, especially the U.S. Naval Academy, do more than provide venues for exercise or competition. Rather, those activities and their participants should be an integral part of the warfighting curriculum of those institutions just as everything else there should be.

This theme leverages the basic relationships between sports and warfighting. In the former one needs to know and understand himself, his teammates and his opponents. It is no different in warfare, where the stakes are higher and therefore the knowing and understanding of one’s self, allies and enemies is of even greater importance for success. Warfare thinking and action are focused upon the international environment.

The global population has embraced sports as a way to improve understanding and relations between nations. The Olympics are the most obvious manifestation of this reality. We have all witnessed how this venue has become, over the decades, a demonstration of either national pride, wealth, political ideology, or a combination of all as well as other positives and negatives. These gatherings have, as a minimum, permitted an up-close and extended engagement by and among the individual athletes themselves.

America does bring foreign officers to the U.S. for training and education exchange programs. Some exchanges involve officers at the more senior levels whose thinking has already been largely shaped and is done in a generally formal classroom environment. This schooling process includes little participation of America’s less friendly counterparts and for the most part it takes place on American soil.

USNA has 33 varsity sports at the national competition level and 25 intramural and club sports for those not competing at the varsity level. America’s other service academies operate similar programs (e.g. West Point offers 25 varsity sports and 28 intramural and club teams). All midshipmen (and cadets) are engaged in one or more sports or athletic activities, but essentially all on the domestic scene.

This sporting, intramural, and club scene is dynamic not only in content but in venue and physicality. The digital age has introduced E-Sports, gaming and wargaming as competitive processes that fill stadiums and require superb hand-eye coordination analogous to that of professional basketball players but while seated at a computer screen. The games have transitioned from general games to those that mimic live sports as well and they too have transitioned to international levels of competition monitored by its version of the NCAA (Global Esports Federation – GEF). Similarly, the military-focused wargaming genre has joined this digital competitive environment.

The National Defense Academy of Japan (NDAJ) manages to field 37 sports at various levels (even including traditional American sports like football, basketball, etc.). USNA (and USMA) have about the same number of students as at the NDAC with the major difference being that the NDAJ offers a three-year education to future officers of all services before they go on to separate one-year schools for their individual militaries.

To varying degrees, militaries have officer-based sporting teams at different levels of skill within and without the primary service school. The Indian Navy has the largest naval academy in Asia and offers at least nine sporting teams. The Royal Navy, in addition to sports teams at its Naval School, fields a vast variety of teams throughout its naval establishment. China’s PLAN sporting focus, as can be determined from afar, appears to be more of a utilitarian team building type, although it does field a seriously respected rugby team. Interestingly, the PLA has not lagged in joining the digital age of competition, with E-Sports and wargaming popular among its military and civilian schools.

The various USNA teams should engage internationally with their friendly and not-so-friendly international military equivalents. The numbers of USNA teams provides significant engagement opportunities at varying appropriate skill levels dispersed over the entire calendar year. An environment exists where competition can be fair and appropriate as well as useful to help produce the warfighting leadership of the future. This proposed international engagement via sports far exceeds that international experience available to midshipmen from any other current program. It is on the international fields and seas where these officers will engage in war and peace.

We do not wish to engage here in a debate regarding how strong the warfighting focus has been of the USNA in recent years. However, it is clear that “warfighting” is currently being emphasized. The newly installed Secretary of Defense has made clear his focus and emphasis is upon warfighting and war readiness. This echoes the previous Chief of Naval Operations in her 2024 Navigation Plan for its “Warfighting Navy” headline and focus.

There is a renewed awareness and focus upon warfighting ability and readiness as the primary, if not singular, mechanism for maintaining peace. As one of the nation’s commissioning sources of naval officers the burden is upon USNA not only to support but to lead in this warfighting mission via its classrooms, dormitories and playing fields.

We are not starting from ground zero. The USNA offshore sailing team recently competed and won at the Ecole Navale International Sailing Week Competition, and in May 2024 the USNA had part of its men and women rugby teams participate in a State Department sponsored Rugby 7 tour of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. We are proposing an organized expansion of these efforts not just for the sport but for the inherent benefit it brings to America’s national security via the education of its future Naval leaders in meeting the USNA mission that the naval officer “must be a great deal more.”

Our interest in this subject came about when we became involved on the periphery of an invitation from the NDAJ’s four-star level civilian head to the USNA rugby team, via its coach, for the team to join in a rugby tournament at the NDAJ that would include teams from the NDAJ, the UK (Royal Naval College) and France (Ecole Navale). USNA’s Rugby team’s schedule and other factors (e.g., financing, event timing, NCAA rules etc.) precluded USNA participation.

We must first call attention to and highlight the significance of this NDAJ rugby initiative given the historical political and societal factors operating in that nation. We see sports related thinking as a “big deal.” The NDAJ rugby initiative not only reinforces the transnational utility of sports but offers a focused interpersonal engagement vehicle for military forces – friendly and not – which the U.S. and U.S. Navy should leap upon and expand. The more important aspect is the engagement with non-friendly nations.

The NDAJ and USNA catalog of sports is more typical than not of what exists at the world’s various service academies. Further, and more importantly, is the global shift in military attitudes exemplified by the Japanese government’s more visible foreign policy on the world’s stage to include this invitation to both the USN and its major seagoing allies via their officer producing schools.

Our contention is that it is all about warfighting to include having the necessary warfighting skills to achieve success without war. In the words of Wellington, “Not all naval battles are fought at sea!” Once one accepts this dictum, the tradeoffs required in terms of time and funding between these events and more traditional activities of Midshipmen (e.g. summer cruises) can be more equitably evaluated.

The “whys” for doing this are probably limited more by experience than imagination, so we list but a few of the more obvious. Whether one is a “globalist” or not, the reality is that America’s military has been involved globally since its founding and this is especially true of its sea services – the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard – whose officers are expected to function as diplomats in their international engagements, even at junior levels. Doing this well requires more international engagement sooner and over a longer period of service time.

The history of the world and certainly that of America from its beginning has made clear the need for supporters, friends, allies, partners regardless of whether the objective is military, political, economic or diplomatic. Whether that non-American shows up as a ship in our formation, a soldier in an adjacent fox hole, an article in some foreign media, a vote in some organizational chamber, some piece of needed foreign real estate or overflight, a trading partner or lender or simply an unpretentious “flag” among many – we all know and accept this need and the utility of someone to satisfy it. Perhaps, even more importantly, we appreciate that we must nurture these relationships if they are to be maintained or improved upon. For the military officer, this is not about “good will” or “friendships” it is about what is required in terms of knowledge about both allies and possible enemies.

For the naval officer this relationship between knowledge and warfighting is lifelong and consistent. It begins at USNA with its motto Ex Scientia Tridens (From Knowledge Sea Power), engraved on every USNA graduate’s class ring. It continues and is reinforced with the U.S. Naval War College motto of Viribus Mari Victoria (Victory through Sea Power); and these academic guidons become seagoing reality in the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s Ready power for peace.

The authors’ experiences have been that there has been and remains a great deal of ignorance and misunderstanding of what transpires in the minds and cultures of others. This deficiency occurs at all institutional levels, public and private. Therefore, being able to make critical judgments regarding what others present becomes ever more important as the pace and sourcing of information is growing exponentially. While critical thinking ability is essential for the domestic environment as well, our focus is warfighting wherein both the opponents and allies will be foreign.

A major, if not the greatest, impediment to international success and a contributor to contentions has been ignorance or misunderstanding of the history, culture, motivations, beliefs, psychology of others. A deficiency compounded in this modern era where English is the new global lingua franca. Because American “culture” (e.g. Apple, pop music, entertainment) is dispersed to the furthest corners of the globe and all are joined together via the Internet and social media, we therefore assume, incorrectly, that others think and are motivated as we are.

Despite varying bloody, military conflicts since World War II’s VJ day, the vast majority of America’s military effort, and especially that of its Navy, has been on peaceful non-kinetic engagement with neutrals, friends, allies, opponents, competitors around the world. All of these actions are either directly or indirectly pointed to enhancing that warfighting prowess to be there when needed and be visible and accepted so as not to be needed.

Although the NDAJ and rugby were the impetus for this article, the opportunities are more extensive and the demand pressing enough that the U.S. and especially the U.S. Navy should take a leadership role in making this happen using the hype created by the Olympics, international athletic competition, and the ever-present forces necessitating “gray zone” engagement. As demonstrated repeatedly, sports allow engagements where otherwise precluded by politics.

This puts the NDAJ invitation in a different light, not just as a friendly school-to-school athletic challenge, but as an opportunity for international exposure, country-to-country understanding, and bonding with friends and allies. And to emphasize the earlier points, this is not just about Japan or Rugby but the broader opportunities across all sports and all nations for a deliberate military to military engagement program in a different sort of classroom and “battlefield.”

Clearly, there are requirements that would have to be met, such as funding, carving out time in already packed academic and sports schedules, and meeting NCAA restrictions. Held against the international opportunities for building personal and professional relationships and improving understanding among all parties, these are not obstacles, but simply the cost of doing business. It is probably not an exaggeration to state that all that takes place in the lives of Midshipmen is geared to turning them into competent naval officers, citizens, and leaders. Consequently, the time allocated to these various endeavors is justified and valid as is the funding, regardless of its source (e.g. government budgets, donations, alumni funding, sports revenue etc.)

These are all costs that need to be sourced. However heavy the financing thumb is on the scale, it should be balanced by potential gains, financial and otherwise. Depending upon where and how these contests are conducted there is the opportunity for revenue such as from advertising, broadcasting and tours. Neither USNA nor the U.S. government itself are novices in this category. On that same counterweight side of the scale are the intangible benefits of image, recruiting across the board, good will, cultural understanding and messaging all done via the more acceptable and less intrusive vehicle of sport.

Although this proposal is directed at the junior levels of the military, our experience has been that a shared background of military service provides a degree of basic rapport that often does not exist between the military and civilian of even the same nation. This is especially true for the sea services where the impartiality of the seas, winds and skies allows one ship’s captain to readily baseline himself with another regardless of nationality. Similarly, competitive athletes at all ages have this shared understanding among their international colleagues. A boxer or wrestler or oarsman or whatever knows, appreciates and has a common foundation with his fellow competitor regardless of nationality because the common vigor of the shared sport transcends borders. Thus, there is an important starting framework from which to go forward – shared naval schooling background combined with common sporting experience.

Basically, getting to “Yes” will include understanding by U.S. leaders that this is both an internal and external political – military issue of great significance. We recommend the following:

1. Begin with “Of course we will participate” and find a way.

2. Start early, quickly and small – focus upon a successful beginning.

3. As with the launching of ships, it is important to “grease the skids” at all stakeholder levels, from coaches to national governments to funders to help ensure success

4. Following on to the NDAJ receptivity and initiative regarding Rugby, Rugby may be the logical beginning; however, pursuing this as the first step may violate the above idea of “early, quickly and small.”

5. The U.S., U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Naval Academy have so many options in terms of sports, timing, venues (domestic and international), and opponents that it is difficult to see an obstacle to an early success once the decision is made to participate.

6. There are several way to fund this program: Academy supporters, athletic and team supporters, patrons, corporations, U.S. DOD and non-DOD funds.

7. Planning around academic year class schedules is difficult, but not impossible. Summer cruises can be designed around team participation as is done now for major sports; venue selection can facilitate the time required for the event. Therefore, we see this as a year-round activity.

8. Treat this program the same as Olympic team participation. There are clear precedents for scheduling and funding for military personnel.

9. Recommendation 1, above, to participate, is not enough: Lead!

Finding a way requires the collaboration of many parties. However, the leadership initiative rests with the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy who has authority for the human resources required for this program and whose staff includes an International Engagement Office, which may need expansion in both depth and breadth to develop and execute a successful program.

There will be various arguments as to why the above is either too difficult or unnecessary. We address three:

1: NCAA rules: important enough to USNA’s Division 1 status and all that goes with it to have a compliance officer on the USNA Athletic Association staff to ensure the coaches adhere to the rules. However, as any tourist to Annapolis will see on display in either a souvenir shop or on the back of a midshipman tee shirt the logo “USNA, not college”. Within and without the USNA, there needs to be a reminder that the service academies have a purpose that goes beyond and sometimes conflicts with that of just being a major educational institution. Further, there are NCAA rules, such as the transfer portal entry, that the USNA is not able to employ. If the USNA becomes serious about executing this proposal, working the NCAA rules process to satisfy all requirements is probably achievable.

2: USNA’s to-do list: that USNA’s superintendent has much to do and adding something else such as this to that work list is counterproductive. The US government and the US Navy furnishes the Superintendent with a significant sized staff to include an already existing International Engagement Officer. We acknowledge that there is no shortage of projects being thrust upon the USNA leadership; however, we think all these endeavors, whether new or traditional, first need to be evaluated and prioritized accordingly by the leadership, writ large, before being rejected. As addressed above, we see the USNA’s primary mission as being that of educating and training entry level naval officers in a manner consistent with the missions of the operating fleet and its other educational institutions. Under this logic every opportunity to educate midshipmen within the framework of warfighting makes sense as an element of the USNA mission.

3: Vehicles, such as CISM (International Military Sports Council) already exist to do such: therefore, use that mechanism rather than something new or different. For reasons best known to USNA, the institution has had no noticeable participation via CISM. Those reasons would certainly have included obstacles such as the NCAA rules, financial support, schedules etc.

While useful in part within that structure, the NDAJ rugby invitation and its acceptance by others sends the message that other vehicles exist, are used and are probably preferred. The recent USNA sailing competition in France and the USNA Rugby 7 tour of some of the South Pacific islands are but two examples. Perhaps most importantly are the objective and who leads.

The objective is to enhance warfighting prowess of America’s Naval Forces. Objectives of such institutions as CISM (“The ultimate goal is to contribute to world peace by uniting armed forces through sports. The motto under which we operate is “Friendship through Sport“) or even that motivating the USNA Rugby 7 tour of the South Pacific (“to enhancing our partnership with the Pacific Islands and the respective governments to achieve our shared vision for a resilient Pacific Islands region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity”) are all well and good but should not and cannot be the objectives of military forces. We say this with full appreciation that a competent warfighting military force can certainly help produce the environment for these other outcomes, as reflected in the US Seventh Fleet’s maxim “ready seapower for peace,” but the operative action is power – seapower and warfighting ability.

The ability of America’s military to perform its primary function – defense of the United States and its objectives – will, as always, depend upon the skills and willingness of its military leaders to lead – to lead internally and externally. Without denigrating the utility, value, importance of friends, allies and international cooperation, the reality – welcomed or not – is that the external world for the foreseeable future is looking to and expecting U.S. leadership. Therefore, we expect America and its naval leadership to lead here as well.

We close with this reminder – “Not all naval battles are fought at sea!”

Captain Phil Bozzelli, USN (Ret.) is a retired Surface Warfare Officer who served as Defense Attache in Rome.

Commander Paul Giarra, USN (Ret.) served as a Navy pilot, attended the National War College-equivalent National Institute for Defence Studies in Tokyo, and was a varsity lightweight oarsman at Harvard.

Photo: Members of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard Men’s 7s Rugby teams contest for possession of the ball during a scrum, Aug. 22, 2025. (Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Theodore Lee)