The Best Bellwether is a Bad Navy: The Russian Navy as a Metric for Modernity

By Prof Chuck Steele

Message from the Editor

An important survey of Russian naval history and naval ambitions from the Great Northern War to the Putin era, demonstrating, the author contends, a perpetual inability to intuit technological modernity. A 20 minute read.

The ability of nations with access to the seas to make use of them for more than basic sustenance is a hallmark of their attaining modernity. Consequently, understanding some of the challenges Russia faced in pursuit of maritime prominence is instructive in comprehending its broader political, economic, and societal progress. Achieving great power status at sea is a historically difficult undertaking, and it is no mere coincidence that the two great economic powers of the last 300 years have also been the two greatest naval powers in history. However, the benefits that accrue to nations capabl…

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