Handbook

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the critical but often overlooked contribution of sea power to history and the development of national security strategies. By studying navies and sea power in the modern world, from the 1890s to the present, concentrating on various thematic issues, students will be challenged to analyse the role that sea power has played in shaping the modern international order and the historical evolution of the concept.

The approach will be international, with a focus on the major naval powers. Themes will include how far classical arguments for sea power remain valid, how far there are naturally naval and continental powers and national naval strategic traditions, how far navies have special capabilities, and modern naval and maritime strategic ideas.