176 notes to pages 70–72
to ignore the immense influence of the writings of Mahan on the structure and
strategies of modern navies, particularly the effect of his classic book The Influence
of Sea Power upon History ( 1890 ). Mahan is considered to be the most influential
theorist of maritime thinking, and his writings are still the paradigm of naval strat-
egy (see, e.g., Kennedy 1983 a; Hattendorf and Jordan 1989 ). Navies still rely on
Mahan to highlight their centrality and justify the high costs of their maintenance
and procurement. Hence, Mahan serves as a good theoretical benchmark for the
examination of the determinants of naval procurement. Mahan lists six elements
of sea power: ( 1 ) geographical position, ( 2 ) physical conformation, ( 3 ) extent of
territory, ( 4 ) size of population, ( 5 ) national character, and ( 6 ) character and pol-
icy of governments. As Paul Kennedy notes, some of Mahan’s variables, such as
national character, may be questionable to the modern social scientist or historian,
but generally, “there is much in his work which can be accepted without question;
indeed a great deal of his ‘elements of sea power’ appears to consist of truisms”
(Kennedy 1983 a, 6 ). As this study shows, very few of Mahan’s “truisms” seem to be
supported by contemporary data.
- As a general rule, carriers require approximately one thousand tons for
every aircraft they carry (Stocker 1997 ). - For more on these distinctions, see Ryczkowski 2012.
- The PDN led to the creation of a Ministry of Defense in 1998 , aimed at re-
structuring the Brazilian defense forces according to a unified strategic framework. - The Foch’s sister carrier, the Clemenceau, was decommissioned in 1997. The
French government tried to find a way to scrap the asbestos- ridden vessel, but be-
cause of strict EU health regulations, the scrapping was deemed illegal in Europe.
The carrier was sent to Turkey, but the Turkish firm backed down after discover-
ing the health risk involved. The Clemenceau farce reached new heights when In-
dian trade unions forced the decommissioned aircraft carrier back to France when
another attempt to decontaminate the ship, this time in India, failed. Chirac was
forced to accept the floating health hazard, once the proud flagship of the French
navy, back in France (Wyatt 2006 ). If it were not for the Brazilian deal, the Foch
would have met a similarly embarrassing fate. - The crisis in the Brazilian air force is so deep that some pilots are flying only
forty hours a year, well below the recommended safety level for a supersonic jet. - The São Paulo replaced the obsolete carrier Minas Gerais, which the Brazil-
ians tried desperately to sell as a way to pay off some of the expenses of the São
Paulo. The Minas Gerais was built for lighter, older planes and hence is not well
suited to accommodate jets. Furthermore, the carrier has only one takeoff track.
Security measures require a landing track as well, forcing the Minas Gerais to oper-
ate only near friendly airports (Proença 2000 ). The Minas Gerais was sold at auc-
tion to a Chinese businessman hoping to turn the antiquated vessel into a floating
shopping center off the coast of Shanghai (Godoy and Leal 2003 ). - In 1997 , Argentina, the only other country in Latin America to own a car-