Why is Mahan so misunderstood? Is it because people who like military history, especially naval history, tend to be fucking retards?
>>1329462
Who the hell misunderstands Mahan? He articulated a shitty outline for naval strategy, which lasted as long as it did because there weren't competing visions.
>>1329472
Well you did end up answering the question, just not in the way you expected.
>>1329480
Seriously, Mahanian doctrine is shit, not the least because in the 17th and 18th centuries he grounded most of his work on, actually controlling commercial lanes through swapper was nigh impossible.
He completely ignores the effect of the railroad on international commerce and thus power, (explain the rise of Russia in Mahanian theory), and even in its own terms, it's shit.
Show me a conflict in which two opposing navies held their fleets together in one capital ship concentration, attempted to destroy the opposing fleet, and then instituted a blockade? If anything, the reverse continually happened, threats to shipping (usually conducted by small raiders, not capital ships) forced naval engagements, which often didn't otherwise form due to the extreme difficulty in attacking a fleet in port.
In either predictive or reccomendive value, Mahan had little to offer.
Again, who is "misreading" him and how?
