A T Mahan And Current Strategy
It's actually almost commonplace to say that the Battle of Jutland was a counterexample to Mahan's theory of the decisive naval battle, but this gives only a partial view of Mahan's theories. According to Wikipedia , the other half of Mahan's theories covered blockades: Mahan's works encouraged the development of large capital ships—eventually leading to dreadnought battleships—as he was an advocate of the 'decisive battle' and of naval blockades. He wrote extensively on blockades, for instance, here . As far as I can see, in Mahan's view, if a decisive naval battle determined control of the sea, control of the sea in turn meant the ability to impose blockades. This is something this critique of post-World War II US strategy neglects : Mahanian theory was a poor predictor of events in World War I, but it could be argued that Mahan’s theory was vindicated in World War II. In 1945 the United States Navy stood at the height of its power. Relati...