Naval War College Review Volume 65 Article 18 Number 3 Summer

2012 Deterrence through Strength: British Naval Power and Foreign Policyunder Pax Britannica Angus K. Ross

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Recommended Citation Ross, Angus K. (2012) "Deterrence through Strength: British Naval Power and Foreign Policyunder Pax Britannica," Naval War College Review: Vol. 65 : No. 3 , Article 18. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol65/iss3/18

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by their complete lack of regard for tradition and worthless theories.” American wars along the Great War- Matzke, Rebecca Berens. Deterrence through path, Cohen reminds us, were parts Strength: British Naval Power and Foreign Policy of European wars. The Atlantic Ocean under Pax Britannica. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska more linked us to Europe than it Press, 2011. 320pp. $45 insulated us from it. Moreover, these Historians have long argued about the wars exposed us to a full range of true mechanism behind a ninety-year seventeenth-to-nineteenth-century period of relative peace in Europe, a European warfare, from set-piece period that began with the end of the battles to what could be called un- Napoleonic wars and became known conventional and secret warfare. They as the Pax Britannica. Over the years also brought the full horror of war to critics have questioned both aspects us. Cohen explodes the contemporary of this term—whether the period was European notion that the United States actually as peaceful as its title suggests did not become “the territory of war” and whether that peace really was, or exposed to terror until 2001. Indeed, in large part, due to Great Britain’s terror in the form of murderous raids overwhelming and imposing com- on New York and New England villages mercial, industrial, financial, and naval marked much of its colonial period. might. Through a searching analysis of Among many other things, Cohen argues political decision making during three that the American appetite for the kind different crises within an eight-year of unconditional surrender pursued by period, Rebecca Matzke’s book, itself a Franklin Roosevelt in World War II had developed and published version of the its grounding in the eighteenth-century author’s Cornell University dissertation, American intention to destroy the en- seeks to add weight to the notion that emy polity that was Canada. More than Britain did indeed use the strength and that, America’s wars to attach Canada versatility of the Royal Navy as an effec- to itself were wars for the freedom of tive deterrent force during this time. that polity. Cohen says, “If any countries The author explains that on three sepa- have ever been ‘conquered into liberty,’ rate occasions between 1838 and 1846 as the Continental Congress had written (Canadian trade and border disputes to the doubtful habitants of Canada with the United States, 1838–42; the in 1775, they were Germany, Italy, and Syrian crisis, 1840–41; and the first Japan, occupied and transformed by Opium War of 1839–42), British politi- armies that combined, in paradoxical cians, in particular Lord Palmerston, degree, thoroughness in defeating an were not afraid to threaten the use of, or enemy and an unlimited, even naïve, to use, naval power to further discrete commitment to liberating him.” British interests on the world stage and Cohen’s book is an astonishingly to coerce and influence the activities good read in addition to being highly of their main rivals in Europe. In each thoughtful and often revelatory. case, while the immediate aim was obviously to benefit British regional KEN JENSEN McLean, Virginia activities, each was undertaken with an eye to preserving the broader peace

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and stability of the international order be taken as truly illustrative of the as a whole. In other words, Britain’s situation throughout the whole of defensive “status quo” policy was the Pax Britannica. Arguably, Matzke implemented by operationally offensive has found a narrow historical period threats or means. Furthermore, Matzke where thesis and facts align, but she is clearly shows that the British politicians less convincing over the broader time well understood that if they failed to frame, and more work would likely be respond to some of these lesser chal- necessary to settle this point decisively. lenges (the Chinese opium war being a Less important, but nonetheless still prime example), over time they risked of concern, is her rather rosy picture weakening their ability to influence their of the reliability of the steamships of major adversaries in the future, in situa- the day. As John Beeler has forcefully tions where the stakes might be higher. demonstrated, truly globally deploy- During the course of her analysis, able, oceangoing steamers would have to Matzke takes issue with established wait until the late 1880s to be realized; scholarship holding that the relative their limitations until then, in terms of inactivity of the Royal Navy during this maintenance requirements and support period was indicative of its compara- while deployed, facts of which navies tive weakness within Europe as a whole. were only too well aware, do not come On the contrary, she depicts an early across well. That said, this is an impor- Victorian navy that was well up to the tant work that successfully advances task, possessing shipbuilding, logis- the study of British naval policy into tics, and manpower support superior an earlier period. When taken together to that of any competitor. It was this with the more established scholarship depth of capability that represented of the late Victorian and Edwardian its major coercive value, particularly periods, it moves us closer to a more to the European rivals, often allow- complete understanding of British ing what she terms demonstrations of efforts to wield naval power in sup- Thomas Schelling’s “skillful nonuse of port of a global free-trading system. military force.” Moreover, the British As such, it has timeless relevance. instinctively knew all this, giving them ANGUS K. ROSS great confidence in their brinkmanship Naval War College with rivals. The case of the successful coercion of France in the Egyptian/ Syrian crisis is a notable example. Matzke’s work is meticulously re- searched, using a wide array of contem- Kleinen, John, and Manon Osseweijer, eds. Pi- rates, Ports, and Coasts in Asia: Historical and porary archival material that focuses Contemporary Perspectives. Singapore and Lei- on the collected thoughts and writings den: ISEAS Press and International Institute for of the main players involved, mate- Asian Studies, 2010. 312pp. $74 rial taken from their personal papers, Liss, Carolin. Oceans of Crime: Maritime Piracy letters, and diaries. The weakness in and Transnational Security in Southeast Asia and her work lies in the admittedly implicit Bangladesh. Singapore and Leiden: ISEAS Press assumption that this short period can and International Institute for Asian Studies, 2011. 446pp. $82.35

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