While battlefields were quiet, the nearly 21-year interwar period between World Wars I and II was hardly inconsequential. Particularly on the U.S. naval front.

In a discussion of his book Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese Navy, military historian John T. Kuehn examines the influence of the advisory General Board of the Navy in assembling the American fleet in the wake of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. The pact—signed by the U.S., Britain, Japan, France, and Italy—limited naval buildup. Despite the constraints, the U.S. designed a fleet that fought the estimable Imperial Japanese Navy to a standstill in the early years of WWII.

Kuehn, a former Navy commander, teaches at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.