ABSTRACT
Command of the sea and its modern derivatives sea control and sea denial are abstractions, a set of ideas. The variant of sea control is based on the idea of navies cooperating, rather than competing, with each other and assuring free and legitimate access to, and use of, the sea against pirates, terrorists, rogue states and others who would seek to deny or limit it. Most traditional maritime strategists are much more pragmatic about what command of the sea is and what it provides. The value of commanding the sea lay not in its physical conquest or possession but in the use to which commanding the sea could be put. In the twentieth century, the Japanese followed suit, again illustrating what command of the sea could mean. But then in a series of battles the Allies broke and destroyed much of the basis of Japanese sea power, wresting command of the sea away from the Imperial Japanese Navy.
