Description:This new collection of up-to-date essays by well-known scholars covers the most significant naval blockades of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Napoleon's Continental Blockade of England and the American Civil War, as well as blockades in more recent conflicts such as World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Persian Gulf interdiction program, and the Chinese ''missile'' blockade of Taiwan in 1996. Each chapter addresses the causes of the blockade in question, its long and short-term repercussions, and the course of the blockade itself and takes advantage of new research and methodologies to provide the most complete information to both the specialist and non-specialist reader. This volume presents fresh insights into issues such as what a naval blockade is, why countries might chose them, which navies can and cannot make use of them, what responses lead to satisfactory or unsatisfactory conclusions, and how far-reaching their consequences tend to be. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of strategic studies, military history and maritime studies.