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Mahan on Naval Strategy: Selections from the Writings of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan PDF

324 Pages·2015·2.44 MB·English
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SERIES EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION The Classics of Sea Power series makes readily available, in uniform, authoritative editions, the central concepts of the naval profession. These major book-length works in the words of the masters have been chosen for their eloquence and timelessness, and express the important themes of strategy, operations, tactics, and theory. With Alfred Thayer Mahan, the seventh author in the series, we come to the man whose very name embodies the notion of sea power. Most naval officers, however, and many historians and statesmen are acquainted with Mahan only through the interpretations of secondary sources. So that Mahan be seen neither as god on a pedestal, too remote, deep, and profound to be approached directly, nor as a mere commentator of a day now 100 years past relevance, we offer every reader the chance to drink the real man from his own cup. In particular the reader may find for himself here the manner and extent of Mahan’s espousal of sea power, both as it offered greatness and threatened vulnerability to a state. One may also discover the firm, forthright, yet nuanced and correlated, way he saw the battle fleet, command of the sea, and the safe movement of shipping as a triad of which maritime achievement is based. Mahan should neither be idolized nor demythologized, but the subject of study, lest it be his ghost and not the writer himself that influences the modern American strategist. SERIES EDITORS Wayne P. Hughes, Jr. John B. Hattnedorf Naval War College Naval Postgraduate School Newport, Rhode Island Monterey, California Mahan on Naval Strategy Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest. Naval Institute Press 291 Wood Road Annapolis, MD 21402 Introduction © 1991 by the United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. These writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan have been reprinted from original sources indicated on the opening pages of each chapter. First Naval Institute Press paperback edition published in 2015. ISBN: 978-1-61251-819-0 (eBook) The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840–1914. Mahan on naval strategy : selections from the writings of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan / Alfred Thayer Mahan : with an introduction by John B. Hattendorf, editor. p. cm.—(Classics of sea power) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Naval strategy. I. Hattendorf, John B. II. Title. III. Series V163.M19 1991 359’.03—dc20 90-25401 Print editions meet the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First printing Frontispiece courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive. CONTENTS Editor’s Introduction Introductory Discussion of the Elements of Sea Power Foundations and Principles Position, Strength, Resources Strategic Lines Distant Operations and Maritime Expeditions Operations of War Considerations Governing the Disposition of Navies The Persian Gulf and International Relations The Naval War College Britain & the German Navy The Panama Canal and the Distribution of the Fleet Index EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION A LFRED THAYER MAHAN made two great contributions to the development of naval thought. First, he linked maritime and naval activities to wider national and international issues. After his series of sea power books, students of naval affairs were no longer satisfied with mere descriptions of battles at sea, as they had previously been. They looked for wider implications and interrelationships. Secondly, he laid out a series of principles for professional naval officers to use in the formulation of naval strategy. His adaptation and refinement of Jomini’s approach to military science marked an intellectual revolution for navies; after reading Mahan’s works, naval officers had found a tool with which they could develop strategic naval doctrine. Mahan thought that his two contributions were of equal importance, each interdependent on the other. Despite the author’s own view, scholars have paid more attention to Mahan’s first contribution than to his second. Mahan’s ideas on sea power have been more interesting to historians as they debated explanations of national and international history. At the same time, naval officers have tended to be more attracted to those concepts in Mahan’s writings that can be readily applied to future situations. On the one hand, these contributions seem to fall into the province of historical scholarship; on the other, into the realm of political science. Different as these two are, they are, however, closely tied to one another. The linking feature is Mahan’s approach to the study of history. As Mahan wrote: Formulated principles, however excellent, are by themselves too abstract to sustain convinced allegiance; the reasons for them, as manifested in concrete cases, are an imperative part of the process through which they really enter the mind and possess the will. On this account the study of 1 military history lies at the foundation of all sound military conclusions and practice. By making his dual contribution to naval thought, Mahan’s work became part of a growing evolution of ideas, which included those of both his precursors and successors. In the application of historical study to the development of naval doctrine, he was clearly following the lines that Sir John Knox Laughton had laid out in England in the 1870s. Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, the founder of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, transmitted to Laughton’s 2 ideas to Mahan, along with Luce’s own wide approach to the study of the highest branches of naval thought. Luce’s ideas led directly to Mahan’s initial series of lectures at the Naval War College. In book from, these lectures eventually appeared as The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660–1783 (1890) and Naval Strategy Compared and Contrasted with the Principles and Practice of Military Operations on Land (1911). There were a number of other writers whose work complemented and expanded Mahan’s. First, there was Vice Admiral Philip Colomb. Like Luce and Mahan, he had also been influenced by Laughton. Colomb’s book, Naval 3 Warfare: Its Ruling Principles and Practice Historically Treated appeared simultaneously with Mahan’s first sea power book in 1890, but concentrated on identifying various types of naval operations and their uses. Among others who succeeded Mahan, Sir Julian Corbett had the advantage of the pioneer work of Laughton as well as that of both Mahan and Colomb. Additionally, he could give a deeper intellectual dimension to naval affairs by applying Clausewitz’s philosophical approach to understanding the nature of 4 warfare. Thus, Corbett went beyond Mahan, subsuming his ideas and placing them in a wider context. From the work of Mahan, Colomb, and Corbett onward, naval theorists have 5 continued to develop and refine naval theory. In the history of this development, Mahan stands out as the writer whose work was the first to be widely read and appreciated. Through the many editions and translations of his works, and through the repetitive publication of his shorter pieces, first in newspapers, then adapted to journal articles and finally appearing as chapters in books, Mahan’s ideas gained a currency that few, if any, other authors in naval 6 affairs have achieved. In the history of naval thought, Alfred Thayer clearly stands out as a great figure, yet a precise understanding of his ideas has been difficult to grasp. Much of this has been due to his large output: 20 books, 22 contributions to other books, 5 volumes (including this one) of his work collected and edited by others,

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Mahan on Naval Strategy, available in paperback for the first time, provides a selection of key writings from one of the greatest naval theorists of all time. An original contributor to the study of strategic thinking, Alfred Thayer Mahan presented concepts and theories in The Influence of Seapower
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