![]() ![]() Third, Mahan theorised from his study of history that the cause of war and change in world politics was rooted in underlying shifts in the power relationships between states. Britain’s naval strength protected this global system. To Mahan, Britain’s leadership of the international political system during the 19th century rested in large part on its position as a trading state, its financial strength, colonies, and manufacturing. He contended that the great commercial states in particular would play a leading role in world politics because of the wealth they generated from international trade. Second, Mahan viewed hierarchy as a distinguishing feature of world politics, and the international system was directed by the decisions of the great powers. In Mahan’s view, the best way to prevent war was to be so well-armed that potential adversaries would be deterred from risking a conflict. So long as human nature remained unchanged, Mahan thought that the threat of war could never be banished from international relations. Mahan argued that ‘the entire conception of the work is itself an illusion based on a profound misreading of human action’. His scathing comments on Norman Angell’s The Great Illusion show how far Mahan was from the view that great power rivalries were atavistic and suicidal. Nor did Mahan think that the international system was likely to change in the near future. Once a state saw that its important interests were threatened, however, international agreements to promote cooperation could not take the place of armed force in providing for its security. Arbitration agreements between states and the establishment of norms for conduct in the international arena were likely to work only so long as the issues at stake were limited. Because states struggled to find security, Mahan was dubious of their ability to promote cooperation between themselves by peaceful means. Since no supranational organisation existed that could control the international system, individual states needed to provide for their own security in a Darwinian struggle for survival. Many of Mahan’s tenets about world politics and strategy are mainstays of contemporary international relations theory.įirst, Mahan saw anarchy as a distinctive attribute of world politics. Indeed, Mahan was a close reader of Thucydides. This tradition traces its lineage back to Thucydides, and includes such prominent modern thinkers as Hans Morgenthau and Henry Kissinger. To use the language of modern-day international relations theory, Mahan’s thought belongs within the realist tradition for the study of relations between states. This neglect is unfortunate because Mahan was a seminal thinker on international politics and strategy. His more famous historical writings, highlighting naval operations, are emphasised in examinations of his thought, while his theories about international politics are relatively neglected. He failed, however, to provide his readers with a systematic treatment of his own views on international relations, geopolitics, and grand strategy. He was a celebrated and prolific writer for almost a quarter of a century, writing extensively on international relations. ![]() In addition to his contribution to the study of naval history and operations, Mahan was a student of international relations and a policy analyst. As a consequence, Mahan is now best remembered as a naval historian, analyst of warfare in the maritime domain, and theorist of sea power.īut this perspective on Mahan is too narrow. Scholars examining Mahan’s writings tend to concentrate on these histories about naval operations during the great wars between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. Mahan’s reputation as a strategic thinker rests primarily on his famous books about the influence of sea power on the world and its affairs. This essay originally appeared under the title ‘Alfred Thayer Mahan,geopolitics and grand strategy‘ in ‘ The Return of Geopolitics’, Bokförlaget Stolpe, in collaboration with the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, 2019.Īlfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) stands out as one of the foremost thinkers on naval warfare, strategy, and international politics. ![]()
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