Mahan's essay A Twentieth Century Outlook considered the potential rise of China and other Asian powers. Armstrong sees a parallel between that argument and China's growing economic power, international role, and maritime interests. Persistent sea blindness would also be familiar: people who have little contact with maritime trade or travel can struggle to connect the oceans with their own lives. His 1890 article The United States Looking Outward tried to address that problem among Americans focused on their continental surroundings. Island societies such as Britain and Japan provide a different setting for public experience of the sea.
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What Mahan would recognize in China and sea blindness
China's maritime rise and continuing sea blindness provide contemporary parallels with Mahan's writing about Asian power and America's outward outlook.