Alfred Thayer Mahan is not a name that is widely recognised nowadays, but of all the writers featured in this column, he can most convincingly be said to have influenced the course of history. His late-19th-century works on naval history and strategy have had an incalculable influence on world leaders, from Kaiser Wilhelm to (arguably) Donald Trump.
Naval strategy in the First and Second World Wars followed Mahanian principles, as it did also during the Cold War. His theories have underpinned Chinese naval strategy for more than 20 years, and President Trump’s startling pronouncements on the future of Panama and Greenland align closely to Mahan’s views on control of sea lanes, international commerce, and blockades.
Born 1840, Mahan entered the US Naval Academy and had a generally uneventful career for a quarter of a century as a naval officer. Serving in ships that were transitioning from wood and sail to iron and steam, he might have remained in obscurity had he not been asked to lecture at the newly established Naval War College in 1885. His teachings there evolved into a series of famous published works, starting in 1890 with The Influence of Sea Power Upon History. This was followed by two further volumes on the French Revolutionary Wars and the War of 1812 respectively.
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