Principles of Maritime Strategy

This brilliant exposition established British naval historian Julian Corbett (1854?1922) as one of the great maritime strategists. Corbett placed naval warfare within the larger framework of human conflict, proposing that the key to maritime dominance lies in effective use of sea lines for communications and in denying that use to the enemy. His concept ? which regarded naval strategy not as an end in itself but as a means to an end, with that end defined by national strategy ? makes this a work of enduring value. Principles of Maritime Strategy emphasizes precise definitions of terminology and ideas as the antidote to loose and purposeless discussion and the direct path to the fundamental data on which all are agreed. As Corbett notes in the Introduction, “In this way we prepare the apparatus of practical discussion; we secure the means of arranging the factors in manageable shape, and of deducing from them with precision and rapidity a practical course of action. Without such apparatus no two men can even think on the same line; much less can they ever hope to detach the real point of difference that divides them and isolate it for quiet solution.” Much quoted and referenced, this ever-relevant work is an indispensable resource for military professionals, historians, and students.