The Control of the Straits and the Naval Policy of the British Empire

What this report covers

Technologies: Command, Control, Communications, Cloud & Edge, Platform Systems & Legacy Platform Modernisation. A sourced, structured 10-page analysis for European defence and dual-use decision-makers, from the DFM research desk and built on official and primary sources.

About this report

The naval policy of the British Empire can be analysed through the same categories used to describe the maritime power of Rome: the control of obligatory passages — straits, canals, capes — the command of the lines of communication, and the capacity to make others’ transit conditional.

The two experiences are separated by two millennia and by a complete technological transformation, from sail to steam, from the broadside to the long gun, from the coaling station to the submarine telegraph cable. Yet, at the level of strategic logic, they share a structure.

Key questions this report answers

• What structural logic links British and Roman command of maritime chokepoints despite two millennia of technological change?
• How did control of straits, canals, and capes underpin the Pax Britannica's global network of passages?
• What caused British command of key maritime passages to decline as the keys passed to other hands?
• What lessons does the "law of the straits" offer for contemporary contests over maritime chokepoints?

Inside this report

• The starting point: defending the Narrow Seas
• The claim to a “closed sea”
• From the Channel to the world: the eighteenth century and the first chokepoints
• The “British way of war”
• The apogee: the global network of passages and the Pax Britannica
• The decline: when the keys pass to other hands
• Conclusion: the law of the straits

Who it's for

Strategy, corporate-development and investment teams that need an ecosystem-level view — budgets, industrial capacity and technology landscapes — before committing capital or capacity.

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Methodology, format & delivery

DFM reports are built from primary and official sources — TED procurement notices, CORDIS and the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, EIB operations, the NATO Innovation Fund portfolio, SIPRI data, official budget documents and company disclosures — read together with the underlying legal texts. Sources are cited in the document; it reflects them as of its publication date (17 June 2026). You receive a 10-page PDF, watermarked to you on every page, delivered on the confirmation page and by e-mail immediately after checkout (personal link valid 72 hours, up to 5 downloads). Guest checkout, single-user licence — Terms of Sale.

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