Commerce Raiding

Commerce Raiding

Author: Bruce A. Elleman

Publisher: Government Printing Office

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9781935352075

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Edited collection of 16 case studies of why and how nations have conducted commerce raiding in the 18th through 20th centuries.


Small Boats and Daring Men

Small Boats and Daring Men

Author: Benjamin Armstrong

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2019-04-18

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 080616316X

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Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding pirate camps, attacking enemy ships in the dark of night, and striking enemy facilities and resources on shore. Even John Paul Jones, father of the American navy, saw such irregular operations as critical to naval warfare. With Jones’s own experience as a starting point, Benjamin Armstrong sets out to take irregular naval warfare out of the shadow of the blue-water battles that dominate naval history. This book, the first historical study of its kind, makes a compelling case for raiding and irregular naval warfare as key elements in the story of American sea power. Beginning with the Continental Navy, Small Boats and Daring Men traces maritime missions through the wars of the early republic, from the coast of modern-day Libya to the rivers and inlets of the Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, Armstrong examines the era’s conflicts with nonstate enemies and threats to American peacetime interests along Pacific and Caribbean shores. Armstrong brings a uniquely informed perspective to his subject; and his work—with reference to original naval operational reports, sailors’ memoirs and diaries, and officers’ correspondence—is at once an exciting narrative of danger and combat at sea and a thoroughgoing analysis of how these events fit into concepts of American sea power. Offering a critical new look at the naval history of the Early American era, this book also raises fundamental questions for naval strategy in the twenty-first century.


Cruisers and La Guerre de Course

Cruisers and La Guerre de Course

Author: Ian H. Marshall

Publisher:

Published: 2008-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780939511204

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The astonishingly effective campaign waged by a handful of Confederate raiders during the Civil War was keenly watched in France and Russia, and above all in Britain. In the fifty years which followed, the most sensitive area in the balance of naval power was the potential damage to worldwide commerce which could be caused by raiders. The steel-built protected cruiser, as a warship type, was evolved to counter this threat. Many countries engaged in the development of cruisers, some to give force to the threat, and some for commerce protection.


German Commerce Raiders 1914–18

German Commerce Raiders 1914–18

Author: Ryan K. Noppen

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-11-20

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 1472809521

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This is the story of Germany's commerce raiders of World War I, the surface ships that were supposed to starve the British Isles of the vast cargoes of vital resources being shipped from the furthest reaches of the Empire. To that end pre-war German naval strategists allocated a number of cruisers and armed, fast ocean liners, as well as a complex and globe-spanning supply network to support them – known as the Etappe network. This book, drawing on technical illustrations and the author's exhaustive research, explains the often overlooked role that the commerce raiders played in World War I. Whilst exploring the design and development of the ships, it also describes their operational history, how they tied up a disproportionate amount of the British fleet on lengthy pursuits, and how certain raiders such as the SMS Emden were able to wreak havoc across the oceans.


The Jeune École

The Jeune École

Author: Arne Roksund

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 9004157239

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The jeune ecole represents a school of maritime strategy dealing with the dilemmas of the weaker power. This book presents a new interpretation of the jeune ecole based on hitherto unexploited unpublished primary sources.


Freedom of the Seas and US Foreign Policy

Freedom of the Seas and US Foreign Policy

Author: Connor Donahue

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-05

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1040008704

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This book critically analyzes US political-military strategy by arguing that freedom of the seas discourse is fundamentally unfit for an era of maritime great power competition. The work conducts a genealogical intellectual history of freedom of the seas discourse in US foreign policy to show how the concept has evolved over time to facilitate American control over the global ocean space. It concludes that the contemporary discourse works to establish the high seas as an arena free from claims of sovereignty so that the United States, as the presumed unrivaled naval power, can intervene globally on behalf of its national interests. However, since sea control strategies depend on a preponderance of material force, as the United States wanes in relative material capability it becomes less able to support political-military strategies predicated on the assumption of global naval dominance. The book provides a timely commentary on the current geopolitical competition between the United States and China, and critiques the US approach toward China in the maritime domain in order to highlight potential avenues of foreign policy action that may enable the two countries to mitigate the risk of conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of naval history, maritime security, US foreign policy, and international relations.


British Privateering Enterprise in the Eighteenth Century

British Privateering Enterprise in the Eighteenth Century

Author: David J. Starkey

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2022-06-17

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1802079882

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An important part of eighteenth-century maritime conflict involved the destruction of enemy commerce and the protection of home trade. In performing these tasks, state navies were augmented by privateers, vessels owned, equipped and manned by private individuals authorised by their governments to attack and seize the enemy’s seabourne property. For their reward, the investors and seafarers engaged in privateering ventures shared in the proceeds of any ships and goods taken and condemned as lawful prize. Privateering therefore represented a business opportunity to the maritime community, a chance to acquire instant wealth at the enemy’s expense; at the same time, it appeared as a cheap convenient means by which the state might supplement its naval strength. In this important analysis David J. Starkey draws upon a wealth of documentary evidence to throw fresh light upon the character, scale and significance of the British privateering business.


Pirate Lands

Pirate Lands

Author: Ursula Daxecker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-01-22

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0190097418

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Maritime piracy's improbable re-emergence following the end of the Cold War was surprising as the image of pirates evokes masted galleons and cutlasses. Yet, the number of incidents and their intensity skyrocketed in the 1990s and 2000s off of the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Somalia. As Ursula Daxecker and Brandon Prins demonstrate in Pirate Lands, Maritime piracy-like civil war, terrorism, and organized crime-is a problem of weak states. Surprisingly, though, pirates do not operate in the least governed areas of weak states. Daxecker and Prins address this puzzle by explaining why some coastal communities experience more pirate attacks in their vicinity than others. They find that pirates do well in places where elites and law enforcement can be bribed, but they also need access to functioning roads, ports, and markets. Using statistical analyses of cross-national and sub-national data on pirate attacks in Indonesia, Nigeria, and Somalia, Daxecker and Prins detail how governance at the state and local level explain the location of maritime piracy. Additionally, they employ geo-spatial tools to rigorously measure how local political capacity and infrastructure affect maritime piracy. Drawing upon interviews with former pirates, community members, and maritime security experts, Pirate Lands offers the first comprehensive, social-scientific account of a phenomenon whose re-appearance after centuries of remission took almost everyone by surprise.


Understanding Naval Warfare

Understanding Naval Warfare

Author: Ian Speller

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-11

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1000954412

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This updated new edition of Understanding Naval Warfare offers the reader an accessible introduction to the study of modern naval warfare, providing a thorough grounding in the vocabulary, concepts, issues and debates, set within the context of relevant history. The third edition explains traditional concepts and explores current and emerging ideas concerning the theory and practice of naval warfare, relating these to recent events including Sino-American naval competition and the Russian-Ukraine War. Navies operate in an environment that most people do not understand and that many avoid. They are equipped with a bewildering range of ships, craft and other vessels and types of equipment, the purpose of which is often unclear. Writings on naval warfare are usually replete with references to esoteric concepts explained in specialist language that can serve as a barrier to understanding. This book cuts through the obscure and the arcane to offer a clear, coherent and accessible guide to the key features of naval warfare which will equip the reader with the knowledge and understanding necessary for a sophisticated engagement with the subject. The new edition is divided into two key parts. The first focuses on concepts of naval warfare and introduces readers to the ideas associated with the theory and practice of naval operations and includes a chapter where the history of the last century of naval warfare is explored in order to illustrate the key concepts. The second part focuses on the conduct of war at sea and on peacetime roles for contemporary navies and now includes new material on hybrid warfare and grey zone operations and on joint warfare, multi-domain operations and integrated deterrence within the context of evolving great power rivalry at sea. This textbook will be essential reading for students of naval warfare, sea power and maritime security and is highly recommended for those studying military history, strategic studies and security studies in general.


German Naval Strategy, 1856-1888

German Naval Strategy, 1856-1888

Author: David H. Olivier

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9780714655536

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This book is a comparative study of the evolution of the German navy in the second half of the nineteenth century. It examines the development of strategy, especially commerce-raiding, in comparison to what other navies were doing in this era of rapid technological change. It is not an insular history, merely listing ship rosters or specific events; it is a history of the German navy in relation to its potential foes. It is also a look at a new military institution involved in an inter-service rivalry for funds, technology and manpower with the prestigious and well-established army.