NO MORE NAPOLEONS

A MAGISTERIAL SURVEY OF NAVAL POWER AND POLICY

- Author: Andrew Lambert Publisher: Yale University Press Price: £25 (Hardback) Released: Out now

Andrew Lambert has produced a fascinating account of British maritime strategy in the long nineteenth century (1789 – 1914). His broader argument rests on two key concepts. The first is ‘ordering’ – the maintenance of a balance of power in Europe through effective diplomacy, preventing one major power dominating the continent. The second, ‘offshore balancing’, is a focus on a strong navy to provide a deterrent to any threat. Lambert argues persuasively that when this approach was followed it deterred any attack from a major power for almost a century after the Battle of Waterloo, and more provocatively, that a neglect of these principles contributed to the onset of the First World War.