Alfred Thayer Mahan remains as relevant today in his logic and operational grammar as he was in the 19th century with his doctrines of capital ship and major fleet action...

For [Mahan], the sea represented a "wide common, over which men may pass in all directions." "Communications," or safe passage through this aquatic commons, was "the most important single element in strategy, political or military." The "eminence of sea power," declared Mahan, lay in its control of vital sea lanes, along with geographic features - islands, coastal seaports - from which warships could safeguard or interdict seaborne traffic.

Indeed, to interrupt a nation's sea communications by naval action was to strike at "the very root" of its national vigor