ABSTRACT
This chapter will look at the three possible ways in which command of the sea can be secured:
• by the pursuit of what Nelson called ‘a close and decisive battle’ in which the enemy’s main naval forces are physically destroyed in Clausewitzian style;
• by a naval defensive of some form, often called a ‘fleet-in-being strategy’ in which strategic advantage is sought by a fleet unwilling to engage in battle against a probably superior adversary;
• by a fleet blockade through which a stronger fleet seeks either to neutralise an adversary reluctant to fight, or to force battle on him.
