Introduction: British naval thinking: a contradiction in terms? GEOFFREY TILL

This celebrated quotation from the correspondence of Sir Julian Corbett, the foremost British naval strategist whose work will be considered later, nicely encapsulates the notion that the British, and in particular the Royal Navy, do not ‘do’ strategy and, more insultingly still that ‘naval thinking’ is essentially a contradiction in terms. This fits in with a preference for practical, down-to-earth empiricism, rather than the theoretical philosophising which many think distinguishes the British from many of the other Europeans.