This tweet is the reason why I have hope. It’s so sharply spot on it hurts. Command of the sea is genuine nonsense in a peacetime discussion. And you don’t need to be Corbett to figure this one out. You just need to sensibly read the basic stuff. So, forgive me for the following: https://twitter.com/wwatmd/status/1329788945643810818

Basic naval literature- not maritime, a point I’ll come back to in a second - is generally divided in 2 main categories. A. Studies on how to acquire command of the sea in war and related issues; b. Studies on peacetime political uses of navies. This is really main distinction.

The former draws its origins in the late 19th cent first efforts on writing about navies and national power - at a time when the oceans were predominantly spaces in which war was the ultimate metric to define order and hierarchy.

The latter has some forerunners in pre-20th century, but really comes to life during the CW when there’s a rediscovery of diplomatic effect of navies - James Cable being often regarded as one of the first to seek to articulate this.

The latter has had recently some very good new stimulus thanks to the work by @c_lemiere @c21st_sailor - and, in light of UNCLOS coming into force, these days you have some excellent maritime security literature, which focuses a lot more on matters of governance.

Some very good work to bridge the naval-maritime divide has seen scholars like @ianjbowers and @CollinSLKoh focusing on the naval-Coast guard nexus. Different approach, more organisational centric - but incredibly insightful.

New up and coming scholars like @MarSec_Bradford @BDHerzinger are doing much to populate the maritime security space, with other authors like @peter_dutton @AndrewSErickson @rdmartinson88 focusing on some key actors of today - notably China -again crucially explaining complexity.

Thus, to speak of command of the sea to describe the present is just not acceptable. And this is even before drawing into this @PeterDombrowsk6 @dmorganowen @timbenbow1 - just to make a few of those who regularly write about how policy, strategy, and naval matters intersect.

For my money - what one should read to get some of the basics? Well. Lots of choice. But short and sharp, I’d go: Brodie - Layman Guide - Turner - Missions of the USN - Gray - Leverage of Seapower - Luttvak - The political Uses of Seapower.

Next time, before going all ‘command of the sea’ just try the above. You won’t have command of the sea, but hopefully a basic grasp of its strategic vocabulary.