The author explores the far-reaching ambitions of US and German elite naval officers before WWI as they advance navalism. Viewing the causes of the industrial nation, global influence, elite rule, and naval power as inseparable, they channeled in different directions as they developed contrasting outlooks on their bids for world power and maritime force. This book challenges the traditional and exceptionalist assumptions about militarism and national identity in the exploration of empire and goepolitics, warfare and military-operational imaginations, state formation and national governance, and expertise and professionalism.

Introduction : maritime militarism in two modern nation-states -- World power in a global age -- Big-power confrontations over empire -- Maritime force, threat, and war -- War of battle fleets -- Planning for victory -- Commerce, law, and the limitation of war -- Naval elites and the state -- Manufacturing consent -- A politics of social imperialism -- Of sciences, sea power, and strategy -- Between leadership and intraservice conflict -- Conclusion : navalism and its trajectories.