The reading traces Julian Corbett's use of German strategic writing while stressing the danger of applying continental military concepts directly to a global maritime empire. German theory reflected the anxieties and ambitions of a continental state pursuing world power, not a neutral set of rules. British thinkers could borrow its analytical structure while keeping practical maritime conditions ahead of elegant theory. A national strategy still had to fit the state's geography, institutions, political aims, and relationship to overseas trade. National ways of war are interconnected, but one strategic culture cannot simply be copied into another.
Chapter · 22:25-25:57
Strategic culture and a British way of war
Andrew Lambert's British Way of War opens a discussion of how practical maritime strategy differs from imported continental theory.