Read more
This is the first book to survey the evolution of the strategic basing systems of the great powers, covering an 800-year span of history, from the Mongol dynasty to the era of the US empire.
Robert E. Harkavy details the progression of strategic basing systems and power projection, from its beginnings at a regional level to its current global reach, while emphasizing the interplay between political and international systemic factors (bipolar vs. multipolar systems), and technological factors. Analyzing the relationship between basing structures and national power, the book deals with such key questions as: the co-mingling of military and commercial functions for bases; sea power; geopolitical theory; imperial 'pick-off' during hegemonic wars; base acquisitions; continuity between basing structures; and long-term shifts in basing functions.
Strategic Basing and the Great Powers, 1200-2000 will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, military history and international relations.
List of contents
1. Introduction 2. The Mongols and the Mings: Naval Basing During an Earlier Age of Sail 3. The Mediterranean Basing Competition and Galley Warfare: Venice, Genoa, Ottoman Empire, Spain, circa 1200-1600 4. Basing Systems in the Age of Empire and Sail 5. The Interwar Period: A Transitional Era 6. Bases During the Cold War: The Bipolar Base Race 7. After the Cold War: Basing in a Unipolar System
About the author
Robert E. Harkavy
Summary
Examines the great powers’ strategic basing networks over the last 800 years, stressing the evolvement of basing structures as a function of changing technological determinants and of the changing nature of the international system.
