The Great Illusion · Character

Admiral Mahan

Naval strategist whose doctrine of interest, markets, and sea power Angell treats as the intellectual engine of the war illusion.

supporting

Also known as Mahan

First appearance: The Great Illusion

As a supporting figure in The Great Illusion, Admiral Mahan is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Referenced as a military strategist whose views on national power are being challenged by the author's economic argument.

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Mahan supplies the realist creed that nations act only from interest and that commercial rivalry must end in control and force. Angell quotes him at length, then presses the counterargument that economic interdependence has quietly rewritten what interest itself means. Their exchange matters because it frames the book's central question: whether the logic of power politics still describes the world it claims to explain.

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Character Web

10 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Naval Power Advocates

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

This is the dramatic climax because it marks the psychological turning point where the pacifist argument shift…

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In the story

Admiral Mahan appears across 8 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

The Great Illusion
Referenced as a military strategist whose views on national power are being challenged by the author's economic argument.
The Axioms of Modern Statecraft
Quoted as an Anglo-Saxon authority summarizing the view that moral force is not sufficient and that nations must seek to control markets by preponderant force.
The Great Illusion
Cited as an authority who argues that armaments are part of the industrial struggle, a claim contradicted by the prosperity of small states.
The Psychological Case for War
Cited as a critic who makes a similar moral and psychological case for the causes of war.
The Psychological Case for Peace
Quoted for his 1912 criticism of Angell's economic case for peace, and for his earlier 1908 statement that nations act from self-interest, highlighting a contradiction.
I: The Relation of Defence to Aggression
Cited as a critic who misunderstands the relation of defence to aggression, using the Napoleonic era as a counterexample.
IV: Methods
Mentioned as an example of those who learnedly advance theories about the advantages of conquest.
Endnotes
Cited for his article 'The Place of Power in International Relations' in the North American Review.

Chapter companion notes

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