The neptune factor : Alfred Thayer Mahan and the concept of sea power /Nicholas A. Lambert.

"Alfred Thayer Mahan's work has long been seen as foundational to the understanding of the purpose of a navy, yet interpretations of what he argued have become misrepresented over time. Far from presenting sea power in terms of combat, as is usually thought, The Neptune Factor demonstrates that Mahan ultimately defined it in terms of economics. Proceeding from the conviction that, historically, international trade carried across the world's oceans was the single greatest driver of national wealth (and thus power), Mahan charactized sea power as the ability to regulate access to the common and influence the flows of transoceanic trade."--