> ...pouring vast sums of money into warships is essential to projecting power, preserving peace and so on (or, from a mirror image viewpoint, that the US Navy is central US global hegemony)
As long as the majority of potentially blockade-running trade is seaborne (air freight is expensive; railways are easy to target), I'd argue navies have a large role in "preserving peace", but obviously intra-eurasian trade would have different constraints to intercontinental.
EDIT: come to think of it, this would easily explain why russia is currently sitting in eastern ukraine: Novorossiysk (or Mariupol?) is much better placed than Murmansk.
As long as the majority of potentially blockade-running trade is seaborne (air freight is expensive; railways are easy to target), I'd argue navies have a large role in "preserving peace", but obviously intra-eurasian trade would have different constraints to intercontinental.
EDIT: come to think of it, this would easily explain why russia is currently sitting in eastern ukraine: Novorossiysk (or Mariupol?) is much better placed than Murmansk.