Jeune Ecole could not fully unify the French Navy because France was both a nation-state and a global imperial power. That position required visible capital ships for presence, alliance management, and the shaping of potential conflicts before war began. At the Japanese review, Britain could send the Canopus-class battleship HMS Glory with a large protected cruiser, while France's contribution looked less commanding regardless of claims about its fleet on paper. The doctrine was therefore weak in peacetime as well as vulnerable in war, because it discounted both diplomatic signaling and an opponent's capacity to adapt.
Chapter · 50:12-52:42
Jeune Ecole fails France's peacetime presence test
A global empire needed capital ships that looked credible during diplomacy, a requirement that a theory centered on wartime attack did not answer.