Commerce Raiding: Historical Case Studies, 1755-2009 (Newport Papers Series, Number 40)

Excerpt from the introduction: "In the late nineteenth century, the French Jeune École, or "new school," of naval thinking promoted a commerce-raiding strategy for the weaker naval power to defeat the dominant naval power. France provided the vocabulary for the discussion-Jeune École and guerre de course (war of the chase)-and embodied the geopolitical predicament addressed: France had been a dominant land power, known for its large and proficient army and resentful of British imperial dominance and commercial preeminence. But its navy had rarely matched the Royal Navy in either quantity or quality, and its economy could not support both a preeminent army and navy. So its naval thinkers thought of an economical way out of its predicament. They argued that a guerre de course allowed weaker maritime power, such as France, to impose disproportionate costs on the stronger sea power in order to achieve its objectives. Sadly for France, the strategy did not work as anticipated, and British naval dominance and imperial primacy endured. The case studies in this book reveal why this was so, and they shed light on the dynamic of rivalries between maritime and continental powers. This issue is an important one in that from the heyday of the British Empire to the present, maritime powers have set the global order, and continental powers have contested it. So the dynamic is still with us, and it is of vital national import to all countries that benefit from the present international order of freedom of navigation, free trade, and the rule of international law".

Bruce Elleman: Research Professor, Maritime History Department, U.S. Naval War College, with an MA (1984) and PhD (1993) from the History Department, Columbia University; MS (1985) in international history, London School of Economics; and MA in national security and strategic studies, with distinction (2004), U.S. Naval War College. Recent books include Modern Chinese Warfare: 1795–1989 (New York: Routledge, 2001); Naval Mutinies of the Twentieth Century: An International Perspective, edited, with Christopher Bell (London: Frank Cass, 2003); Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies and Counter-strategies, 1805–2005, edited, with S. C. M. Paine (London: Routledge, 2006); Waves of Hope: The U.S. Navy’s Response to the Tsunami in Northern Indonesia, Newport Paper 28 (Newport, R.I.: Naval War College Press, 2007); and Naval Coalition Warfare: From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom, edited, with Sarah Paine (London: Routledge, 2008).

 

S.C.M. Paine: Professor in the Strategy and Policy Department, U.S. Naval War College, with the Ph.D. (1993) in Russian and Chinese History, Columbia University, and M.I.A. (1984) from School for International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Author of The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier, 1858-1924. (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), winner of the 1997 Barbara Jelavich Prize for diplomatic history from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). Editor of Nation Building, State Building, and Economic Development: Case Studies and Comparisons (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2010) and co-author with Bruce A. Elleman of Modern China: Continuity and Change 1644 to the Present (Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010).